title: Chronic systemic inflammatory syndrome in patients with AECOPD presenting to emergency department.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the fourth cause of dead in the world. Because of high incidence of comorbidities in COPD patients, it has been proposed a new hypothesis that inscribe this disease in a complex contest named chronic systemic inflammatory syndrome (CSIS). Either COPD and the most common comorbidities responsible for its clinical and natural history, like hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, heart failure, recognize a pro-inflammatory state, marked, for example, by elevated C reactive protein (CRP).
  
  
  METHODS
  113 consecutive patients presenting to emergency department (ED) with acute exacerbated COPD were enrolled. They underwent to full medical history and physical examination. CRP was measured at ED arrival, discharge and at 1-6-12 month follow up. CSIS was diagnosed according to specified criteria.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CSIS was diagnosed in 84% patients. CRP was maximally increased at admission during the exacerbation, but didn't correlate with the severity of it. At discharge, CRP values were lowest; during follow up, CRP demonstrated a chaotic behavior growing up till 6 month without any correlation with new exacerbation events. At 1 year it decreased, never reaching normal values in the majority of our patients thus confirming the presence of a persistent inflammation in COPD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CSIS was diagnosed in 84% of our population demonstrating that COPD patients need to be approached in a multidisciplinary way.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, II Medical School Sapienza University, Sant'Andrea Hospital, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Piras
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Travaglino
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Autunno
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bresciani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Della Corte
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lalle
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Somma
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D015897:Comorbidity; D048909:Diabetes Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D002097:C-Reactive Protein