TY - JOUR T1 - Bacterial load in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and its relationship with airway inflammation and lung function JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 38 IS - Suppl 55 SP - p3014 AU - Mitesh Pancholi AU - Mona Bafadhel AU - Sue McKenna AU - Sarah Terry AU - Vijay Mistry AU - Chris Newby AU - Ian Pavord AU - Christopher Brightling Y1 - 2011/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/38/Suppl_55/p3014.abstract N2 - Introduction: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is characterised by fixed airflow obstruction, typically in association with persistent airway inflammation and bacterial colonisation. The relationship between these features of disease is not fully understood.Method: Patients with COPD were recruited from a single centre and were characterised in terms of their lung function, health status, sputum cell counts and quantitative microbiology to derive colony forming units (CFU)/ml of sputumResults: 126 patients were recruited, 83 were male. The mean (SEM) was for FEV1% predicted 48.10 (1.64), sputum neutrophil count 73.2 (2.06)%, total cell count (TCC) 6.55 (0.90) 106/g, CFU 8.5×107(1.5×107) and median (IQR) eosinophil count, 0.75 (0.25-2.5)% data for the neutrophil (%), eosinophil (%).Univariate correlations was observed between CFU and neutrophil (%) (r=0.306; p=<0.001), TCC (r=0.273; p=0.002), but not eosinophil (%) (r=-0.058; p=0.517) and FEV1% predicted (r=-0.061; p=0.497).CFU data was put into tertiles, with a relationship observed with neutrophil (%) (p=0.035), TCC (p=0.028) 106/g and eosinophil (%) (p=0.011), but not FEV1% predicted (p=0.942).Conclusion: Bacterial load was associated with the sputum total cell count and neutrophil differential but was not associated with lung function. Longitudinal studies are required to assess the role of bacteria in disease progression. ER -