PUNE: A week-long screening programme across 44 medical college hospitals in India has found that 11% of the patients studied had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
The programme, organised by Pune’s Chest Research and Training Private Limited (CREST), screened 2,440 patients in the OPDs of the hospitals.
CREST director Dr Sundeep Salvi told TOI, “Out of the 2,440 patients, 269 (11%) were found to have COPD, of which 201 were men and 67 were women. Nearly 161 of these were smokers, the findings revealed. In some medical colleges, one in every six patients screened had COPD and in others, every fourth patient had the disease.”
In Jaipur, Rajasthan and Ujjain, every third patient visiting the OPD of the medical colleges as part of the study had COPD, he said.
The screening programme was organised as part of the World COPD Day on November 17.
During the five-day programme, every patient visiting the chest department was tested for COPD using a tool comprising a set of eight questions and a peak flow meter test. The ones who screened positive took a spirometry test that was performed by the Breathe Free educator team of Cipla.
The treating doctor then examined those found positive on the spirometry. The final diagnosis of COPD was based on spirometry and by the treating doctor in the medical college. Colleges from Maharashtra where patients were screened were Pune-based Bharati Vidyapeeth and Kashibai Navale.
Chest Research and Training Private Limited (CREST) director Dr Sundeep Salvi said COPD patients are likely to have very severe Covid-19 when they catch the infection.
“COPD patients, thus, have to be protected from catching Covid-19 with stringent protocols such as hand hygiene, masking, social distancing being very important for such patients,” he said.
COPD is a chronic, progressive lung disease with intermittent periods of exacerbations, called lung attacks, that can often be fatal.
“It is caused by long-term exposure to noxious pollutants that causes damage to the breathing tubes and the gas exchange portion of the lung. Tobacco smoking in any form, household air pollution from burning of biomass fuels for cooking purposes, burning of mosquito coils, long-term exposure to ambient air pollution from motor vehicular exhausts, industry smoke, road dust, and working in dusty workplaces for many years are the risk factors associated with COPD ,” he said.
According to experts, COPD can be diagnosed with the help of a test called spirometry, yet many doctors or hospitals across India do not have this test. Thus, many COPD cases remain undiagnosed or wrongly diagnosed, leading to undertreatment and wrong treatment.
