Fraunhofer Item, Biomedical Research In Endstage And Obstructive Lung Disease Hannover (Breath), German Center For Lung Research (Hannover, Germany)

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disease characterized by respiratory problems and poor airflow with dyspnea and cough being the main symptoms. Acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) are the most important events for patients with COPD that have a negative impact on patients´ quality of life, accelerate disease progression, and can result in hospital admissions and death. It is of major clinical importance to determine predictors of an AECOPD and to identify patients who are at high risk for developing an acute exacerbation and/or to detect the beginning of or prevent an ongoing acute exacerbation as early as possible. Until now, research in the field of AECOPD has gathered and analyzed data only after manifestation of AECOPD until recovery and most of them used a retrospective study design. Therefore, the aim of this prospective trial is to collect clinical data in patients prior to the first visible clinical signs of an AECOPD to investigate potential early predictors of an AECOPD.