Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection increases the readmission rate of COPD patients

Choi, Juwhan; Oh, Jee Youn; Lee, Young Seok; Hur, Gyu Young; Lee, Sung Yong; Shim, Jae Jeong; Kang, Kyung Ho; Min, Kyung Hoon

Choi et al the identification of P. aeruginosa in cases of AECOPD means a poor prognosis. Our study has some limitations. First, this is a retrospective study, so there were limitations in obtaining data. For example, some patients lacked chest computed tomography data, thus limiting analysis of associations with bronchiectasis. And sputum culture assay was not conducted before and after admission. Second, colonization and contamination could not be distinguished in our study. Although sputum results of grade four or five were used to analyze culture results and collection of all specimens was done by trained physicians, additional data to analyze colonization and contamination were lacking. Third, the sample size was small after propensity score matching. So some of the comparisons in this analysis suggest that there may be insufficient statistical power. For example, only the bacterial pathogen identification rate is 38.5% in the readmission group and 26.9% in the no-readmission group. But this difference is not statistically significant. Although this study was a retrospective and single-center study, we analyzed various factors in a largescale group. An additional large-scale, multicenter, randomized control study is required to confirm our results.