A 1-year Multi-center, Prospective, Cohort Study in Patients With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Treated With Long-acting Bronchodilator

Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) is the amount of air that can be exhaled in one second. A positive change from baseline in FEV1 indicates improvement in lung function. Pulmonary function tests were performed at study visits including FEV1, and Force Vital Capacity (FVC). These were performed 30 minutes before treatment and not more than 2 hours in advance after stopping the long-acting bronchodilators eight hours before visits. In order to reduce the variation between each test, the same instrument was used in the whole research process if condition allowed.

Number of COPD exacerbations evaluated over 12 months. COPD exacerbation is defined as a new onset or worsening of at least 1 respiratory major symptoms (e.g. dyspnea, cough, sputum volume or sputum purulence) for at least 3 consecutive days, which results in recorded treatment change (antibiotics/steroids/oxygen therapy) OR recorded COPD related hospitalization/Emergency visit. COPD exacerbation is not considered as adverse event, and should only be recorded in COPD e-CRF.

The mMRC scale is scored from 0 (less severe) to 4 (severe). 0 Not troubled with breathlessness except with strenuous exercise; 1 Troubled by shortness of breath when hurrying on the level or walking up a slight hill; 2 Walks slower than people of the same age on the level because of breathlessness or has to stop for breath when walking at own pace on the level; 3 Stops for breath after walking about 100 yards or after a few minutes on the level; 4 Too breathless to leave the house or breathless when dressing or undressing. The modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) Dyspnea Scale , is a five-item instrument (part of the Borg scale) to assess a patient's degree of breathlessness in relation to physical activity. Participants will be required to read a brief description of an activity and then select a statement that best describes their experience with dyspnea at Visit 101. The mMRC was assessed by the investigators at the scheduled visits.

The COPD assessment test (CAT) is a short instrument scale used to quantify the symptom burden of COPD and will be used to assess the health status of patients in this study. It consists of eight items, each presented as a semantic 6-point differential scale, providing a total score out of 40. A higher score indicates a worse health status. Scores of 0 - 10, 11 - 20, 21 - 30 and 31 - 40 represent a mild, moderate, severe or very severe clinical impact of COPD upon the patient.

Transition Dyspnea Index (TDI) captures changes from baseline. The TDI score is based on three domains with each domain scored from -3 (major deterioration) to +3 (major improvement), to give an overall score of -9 to +9, a negative score indicating a deterioration from baseline. A TDI focal score of 1 is considered to be a clinically significant improvement from baseline. BDI/TDI was used to assess dyspnea from several aspects, caused by daily activities. These were evaluated by the investigators in the study at the scheduled study visits. The indices were to be evaluated by the same investigator.as far as possible.