PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Cristina Esquinas
AU  - Miriam Barrecheguren
AU  - Esther Rodriguez
AU  - Maria Sucena
AU  - Sandra Fernandez
AU  - Marc Miravitlles
TI  - Degree of knowledge among physicians about the diagnosis and treatment of alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency
AID  - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2015.PA682
DP  - 2015 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - PA682
VI  - 46
IP  - suppl 59
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA682.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/suppl_59/PA682.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2015 Sep 01; 46
AB  - Introduction: Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AATD) is still an underdiagnosed disease.This may be due to insufficient knowledge of the disease among physicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge about AATD of physicians from Spain and Portugal.Method: Observational cross-sectional survey. A total of 376 physicians: pulmonologists (26.6%), general practitioners (46.8%) and internal medicine specialists (26.6%) were randomly selected from Spain and Portugal. Professionals underwent an anonymous online survey consisting of 15 questions to test their knowledge on AATD and other respiratory diseases.Results: 63% of responders were male with a mean age of 46.7 years (SD 9.6). 14% responded that they "knew a lot" about the AATD. Only 18.1% requested determinations of AAT regularly, 52.4% occasionally and 29.5% never. The majority requested 1-5 tests per month (73.6%). Of these, only 15.8% performed an AATD study on all patients with COPD and 84.2% only in young COPD patients. The principal reason for not testing was "referral to specialists" (39.9%), "high cost of the test" (39%), "time to receive the results" (12%) or "non-existence of an available treatment "(7.8%). 54.8% did not know the diagnostic threshold value of AAT levels. 28.5% reported they had never treated any detected cases with augmentation therapy. In general, pulmonologists showed a greater knowledge of the disease compared with internists and general practitionersConclusions: Knowledge about AATD is low and only 16% of specialists follows the recommendation of performing AAT determinations in all patients with COPD.Supported by Grifols.