TY - JOUR T1 - Use of tiotropium Respimat <em>versus</em> HandiHaler and mortality in patients with COPD JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1818 LP - 1819 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00036314 VL - 43 IS - 6 AU - Katia M.C. Verhamme AU - Miriam C.J.M. Sturkenboom AU - Guy G.O. Brusselle Y1 - 2014/06/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/43/6/1818.abstract N2 - From the authors:C.N. Meyer addresses an important point that might partially explain discordances between findings of classical randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and observational (cohort or database) studies: do physicians take into account absolute and relative contraindications before prescribing a new drug? In their Danish, questionnaire-based study, a substantial proportion of physicians stated that they did not use any contraindications to long-acting muscarinic antagonists when treating patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These disturbing findings are in accordance with the relatively high prevalences of arrhythmia, ischaemic heart disease and renal failure in our cohort study on the association between … ER -