TY - JOUR T1 - Continuous fat-free mass decline in COPD: fact or fiction? JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1496 LP - 1498 DO - 10.1183/13993003.00692-2015 VL - 46 IS - 5 AU - Erica P.A. Rutten AU - Martijn A. Spruit AU - Merry-Lynn N. McDonald AU - Stephen Rennard AU - Alvar Agusti AU - Bartolome Celli AU - Bruce E. Miller AU - Courtney Crim AU - Peter M.A. Calverley AU - Corrine Hanson AU - William MacNee AU - Frits M.E. Franssen AU - Lowie Vanfleteren AU - Emiel F.M. Wouters Y1 - 2015/11/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/46/5/1496.abstract N2 - Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) generally have lower fat-free mass (a surrogate marker of skeletal muscle mass) compared with their healthy peers [1, 2], and this is associated with decreased functional capacity [3], the presence of other comorbidities (e.g. osteoporosis and renal impairment) [4] and increased mortality risk [5]. To date, longitudinal observational studies have shown no difference in the mean decline in fat-free mass over time between COPD patients and non-COPD control subjects [6, 7]. However, it remains unknown whether and to what extent a subgroup of COPD patients suffer continuous loss of fat-free mass. We hypothesised that COPD patients have 1) a higher prevalence of continuous fat-free mass decline, and 2) that this subgroup has a steeper decline of fat-free mass compared with a non-COPD control group with a continuous fat-free mass decline. We tested this hypothesis in the ECLIPSE (Evaluation of COPD Longitudinally to Identify Predictive Surrogate Endpoints) study, which had a 3 year follow-up period.Only a small proportion of COPD patients suffer continuous decline of fat-free mass http://ow.ly/R6ioA ER -