COPD severity analysis according to current evaluation criteria – National survey

Background: The revision of GOLD in 2011 and its updates suggested a more complex approach for the COPD severity evaluation and management. Objectives: To evaluate COPD severity and management in Bulgaria using data from pulmonary specialists (PS) from all over the country. Methods and Material: We applied a specially designed questionnaire to evaluate almost 1000 COPD patients from around 40 medical centers. Consecutive patients were included if they had a diagnosis of COPD of at least 12 months and 2 documented examinations by a PS in the previous year. Results: About 922 patients were includedwithmean age of 65±9. Males were 603 (65.4%). Smokers were 72.7% and their number increased with the group – from A to D (p A higher percentage of patients with cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities (CM) was found in the high risk group D (p Usage of ICS and LAMA increased with group number while LABA usage was higher in groups A and C (p Conclusion: The Bulgarian National COPD survey showed a very high level of smoking and CM among COPD patients. Symptomatic patients had longer COPD duration. Group B patients had similar features with high risk groups. Treatment with ICS mono therapy was linked with a very high level of E and hospitalizations. Treatment modalities for COPD patients in Bulgaria showed certain deviations from the latest GOLD recommendations.