Long-term Effects of Non-invasive Ventilation in Hypercapnic Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients

Long-term Effects of Non-invasive Ventilation in Hypercapnic COPD Patients.

In this multicenter study the comparison of the mass flow distribution and redistribution versus the relative blood flow per lobe (as a surrogate for Ventilation/ Perfusion (V/Q) matching) with functional respiratory imaging (FRI) and arterial blood gas (ABG) values will be evaluated in hypercapnic Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients. Therefore a low dose Computed Tomography (CT) scan will be taken in a population of 30 patients with non-invasive ventilation (NIV) and in a control group of 10 patients without NIV. The CT-scan will be used for FRI.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age: ≥ 40 years old
• Men and women
• Written informed consent obtained
• COPD patients GOLD II, III and IV
• Persisting hypercapnia (pCO2 > 45 mmHg ) notwithstanding adequate treatment modalities (including oxygen) as proposed by the GOLD guidelines
• Stopped smoking
• Total lung capacity (TLC) > 85%

Exclusion Criteria:

• Treatment with home NIV or Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP)
• Asthma
• Restrictive lung disease
• Symptomatic or uncontrolled heart failure
• Current malignancy
• Suspected bad compliance for NIV treatment
• Pregnant women
• Not be able to speak the language of the participating center
• Received an investigational product within 4 weeks prior to inclusion in the study