Remote monitoring of vital signs in patients with COPD effectively detects acute exacerbations, thereby promoting swift therapeutic intervention.

“Early detection of [acute exacerbations of] COPD is crucial to improve the quality of life and care for patients with COPD, and to reduce the economic burden of this disease,” said Yann Le Guillou, who presented these remarks at the 2023 American Thoracic Society International Conference, held from May 19-24, in Washington, DC. “Although the annual risk of acute exacerbations is mainly determined by a patient’s forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁), exacerbation history, age, and smoking history, the daily risk is related to vital signs, dyspnea, exposure to pathogens, and polluted environments.” Le Guillou argued that it is key to evaluate daily risk to deliver appropriate treatments swiftly if needed. In the study, which included eight patients with COPD, vital signs (ie, oxygen saturation, heart rate, respiratory rate, and activity level) were measured with an at-home device that delivered automated alerts to a monitoring pulmonologist. A patient-specific risk score derived from oxygen saturation, heart rate, and respiratory rate was used as a primary outcome measure.

During a total of 12,444 monitoring days, about 1.5 million measurements were collected, and 21 exacerbations were reported. The risk score algorithm predicted the occurrence of acute exacerbations with a specificity of 90.9% and a sensitivity of 85.7% (area under curve, 0.94), anticipating on average 3 days in advance of the upcoming exacerbation.

“There was a good performance in the detection of [acute exacerbations of] COPD in this study,” concluded Le Guillou. “Finally, I would like to address that it is important that remote patient monitoring is effortless for patients with COPD because it will lead to patient acceptation and high compliance rates.”

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