The respiratory virome and exacerbations in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

van Rijn, Anneloes L.; van Boheemen, Sander; Sidorov, Igor; Carbo, Ellen C.; Pappas, Nikos; Mei, Hailiang; Feltkamp, Mariet; Aanerud, Marianne; Bakke, Per; Claas, Eric C. J.; Eagan, Tomas M.; Hiemstra, Pieter S.; Kroes, Aloys C. M.; de Vries, Jutte J. C.

Patients with COPD were included in the Bergen COPD exacerbation study (BCES) between 2006 and 2010 in Bergen, Norway [18] . All patients lived in the Haukeland University Hospital district. Baseline data taken during the first visit while in the stable state included amongst others exacerbation history, medications, comorbidities, spirometry and Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD 2007) categorisation. Patients were given a telephone number to a study nurse, whom they would contact in case of an exacerbation. Patients with an exacerbation according to a predefined set of symptoms were scheduled for an appointment with a study physician the next working day. During exacerbations, nasopharynx swabs were sampled and two different markers for the severity of the exacerbation were scored. After an exacerbation a control visit was scheduled. During the study period 154 patients had at least one exacerbation and in total 325 exacerbations were included in BCES, of which 88 exacerbation samples were tested in the current study.