TY - JOUR T1 - Distribution of blood eosinophil in COPD patients JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J VL - 44 IS - Suppl 58 SP - P4765 AU - Trung Tran AU - Herve Caspard AU - Christine Ward AU - Rene van de Merwe Y1 - 2014/09/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4765.abstract N2 - Background: Increased eosinophils in the airway have been associated with exacerbations of COPD. While blood eosinophils have been shown to be useful in identifying sputum eosinophilia, little is known about the distribution of elevated blood eosinophils in COPD patients, especially by disease stage.Objectives: To describe the distribution of blood eosinophils in COPD patients.Methods: We analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (2007-2010), an annual survey of the general United States population. COPD patients were defined as those ≥40 years old self-reported as having emphysema, chronic bronchitis, or coughing and bringing up phlegm on most days for ≥3 consecutive months, and who had an FEV1/FVC ratio <0.7. COPD disease stage was defined using the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease staging system (GOLD 2009). GOLD III and IV were combined to improve precision. Elevated blood eosinophil was defined using 200, 300, or 400 cells/µL cutoff.Results: About one third of GOLD III/IV patients had blood eosinophil ≥300 cells/uL. The proportion of patients with elevated blood eosinophil did not vary by age, gender, or GOLD stage with the 200 and 300 cutoffs but increased from 21% in GOLD I, 17% in GOLD II, to 34% in GOLD III&IV with the 400 cells/µL cutoff.View this table: Conclusions: A considerable proportion of COPD patients have elevated blood eosinophil. A higher proportion of GOLD III/IV with blood eosinophils ≥400 cells/uL than in GOLD I/II suggested a role of blood eosinophils in disease severity. ER -