Many people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) use inhalers every day to help avoid and control their symptoms. Many individuals do not use their inhalers correctly meaning symptoms can get worse. Teaching people how to use their inhalers does not always happen during regular medical visits.

This study looked at whether a specific inhaler education program given over the phone could help people with COPD use their inhalers correctly. Those in the program received 1 or 2 phone calls from a pharmacist. The program included: (1) rounds of checking to see how they would use the inhaler, and (2) rounds of teaching on how to do each step of using their inhaler. These rounds were done up to 3 times to try to help practice each of the steps.

Before the education program, just under half of the people in the program were using their inhalers incorrectly. After the first phone-based education session, fewer than 1-in-10 people were still using their inhaler incorrectly. A second phone session helped many people keep using their inhaler correctly.

A phone-based inhaler education program can be an effective and easy way to help people with COPD manage their medicines outside of in-person visits.

Atrial fibrillation is a common heart rhythm problem that increases the risk of stroke. Many people take blood-thinning medicines to reduce clotting, but these medicines can also raise the chance of bleeding. COPD is a long-term lung disease that makes breathing difficult and often occurs together with atrial fibrillation. It is not always clear which blood-thinning medicine is safest for people who have both conditions.

We reviewed adults with atrial fibrillation and COPD treated at 12 hospitals. We compared warfarin (an older blood-thinning medicine) with newer blood-thinning medicines called direct oral anticoagulants or DOACs (such as apixaban or rivaroxaban).

Overall, people taking DOACs had fewer bleeding problems than those taking warfarin. This was especially true for minor bleeding like bruising or nosebleeds. DOACs also seemed to be linked to fewer deaths in patients whose kidneys were not working well, while results were less clear in patients with normal kidney function. Different DOACs did not look identical, suggesting the specific drug may matter. Because this study used medical records, it cannot prove cause and effect, but it provides real-world information to support safer treatment choices.

People living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often report coughing, shortness of breath, and chest tightness at night. These nighttime symptoms can interrupt sleep, but this issue has not been well studied in lower-resource settings such as Vietnam. We wanted to understand how common poor sleep is in Vietnamese patients with COPD and how it relates to their breathing symptoms.

From February to May 2025, we enrolled 289 adults being followed at the COPD clinic of Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, Vietnam. We asked patients questions about their health, breathing symptoms, how long they had been diagnosed, other medical conditions, and whether they had been hospitalized in the previous year. We also used a standard sleep questionnaire to rate their sleep quality.

We found that poor sleep was very common: about 86% of patients reported sleep problems. Poor sleep was more likely in patients with more severe breathing symptoms, those who had been diagnosed longer, those with worse lung function, and those patients with more severe overall disease.

In the future, routinely asking about sleep may help doctors identify unmet needs and improve care by better controlling respiratory symptoms and nighttime discomfort.

People with chronic lung disease often use inhaled medicines to help them breathe. These medicines can be taken using small handheld inhalers or by using a nebulizer, a machine that turns liquid medicine into a mist that is breathed in through a mask or mouthpiece. Doctors often prescribe nebulizers, but there is limited information about who uses them, when they are started, and whether they are being used in the best way.

In this study, we followed nearly 3,000 adults, some with chronic lung disease and others at risk because of smoking, for up to 7 years. We looked at who was already using a nebulizer at the start of the study and who began using one over time. We compared their symptoms, lung function, physical activity, and history of breathing flare-ups.

By the end of the study, we learned that nebulizers were mostly used by people with more severe breathing problems. People who had frequent flare-ups, worse shortness of breath, poorer lung function, or a history of asthma were more likely to use or start using a nebulizer. Most people used nebulizers only during symptom flare-ups rather than as a daily treatment.

This research was needed because treatment guidelines often do not clearly explain when nebulizers should be used. Our findings can help guide future studies and improve treatment decisions by identifying which patients may benefit most and where better information is still needed.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a long-term lung condition that causes breathing problems, cough, and mucus production. While overall diet is known to affect lung health, less is known about which specific parts of food may be responsible. Isoflavones are natural substances found mostly in soy-based foods and legumes that may benefit the health of patients with COPD by reducing irritation or inflammation.

In this study, former smokers with COPD were followed for 6 months. Participants reported their usual diet, including foods that contain isoflavones, and completed questionnaires about their breathing symptoms, cough, and overall lung health. Lung function testing and urine samples were also collected to measure markers or signs related to disease activity.

We found that people who ate higher amounts of isoflavones reported fewer breathing-related symptoms, better overall lung health, and less difficulty with cough and mucus clearance. They also had lower levels of a marker in their urine that has been linked to increased platelet activation. Platelet activation occurs when the body is injured or damaged and has previously been associated with worse lung disease.

These findings suggest that eating foods rich in isoflavones may be a helpful way to improve symptoms in people living with COPD.

After a flare-up or exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary rehabilitation can help individuals recover from the flare-up, get stronger, and reduce their symptoms. In our study we wanted to understand how often individuals recovering from a flare-up or exacerbation experience low levels of oxygen in their blood (oxygen desaturation) during the early days of their pulmonary rehab experience.

We reviewed the medical records of 262 patients who started inpatient pulmonary rehab after a COPD exacerbation in 2 specialized centers. We compared patients who needed oxygen at rest with those who did not. We focused on individuals’ results from a 6-minute walking test they performed when they started the program.

Our review showed that about half of the patients experienced a significant drop in oxygen while walking. This was much more common in patients using oxygen at rest than in those breathing room air. Patients who needed oxygen at rest had poorer lung function, more breathlessness, and walked shorter distances, compared to those who did not need oxygen.

These results show that checking oxygen levels during activity is especially important in the early days after a COPD exacerbation, particularly in patients needing oxygen at rest. This checking will help health care teams adjust oxygen levels and adjust pulmonary rehab program to meet each patient's needs.

The Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Exacerbation Recognition Tool (CERT)^© was created to help people with COPD recognize when they are having a flare-up of symptoms called an exacerbation.

The CERT is being made available in many languages, and this study checked the accuracy of 46 translations of the CERT to ensure they were respectful of the beliefs, values, and traditions related to each language. Professional language experts translated the tool using internationally accepted methods. Researchers then interviewed at least 5 people with COPD in each language group. These participants were native speakers and were asked whether the tool was clear, easy to understand, and useful to them. They were also shown images used in the tool and were asked whether they reflected them or other people with COPD in their country.

We found that all translations closely matched the original and were similar to each other. Participants said the tool was easy to use and understand. They also confirmed that the images were appropriate and represented them well. Overall, this study shows that the CERT can be used reliably across different languages and cultures.

Bronchiectasis is a long-term health condition in which airways are constantly irritated or inflamed, leading to permanent airway damage and a build-up of mucus. This often causes a chronic cough and infections. People with bronchiectasis who also have chronic sinus disease (constant irritation of the spaces behind the nose and cheeks) have more symptoms and more frequent flare-ups of their bronchiectasis. The sinuses (space behind the nose and cheeks) may serve as a collecting or storage place for germs or bacteria that could move into the lungs.

We set out to find out if people with bronchiectasis and sinus disease are more likely to be infected with a type of bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These bacteria are important because they make bronchiectasis more severe.

We reviewed the health information from more than 1,300 people with bronchiectasis in a large United States research registry. We compared people who had a history of chronic sinus disease with those who did not. Using statistical analyses, we found that people with bronchiectasis and sinus disease were more likely to have their sputum (mucus coughed up from the lungs) infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

These results suggest that Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection may be one of the reasons people with bronchiectasis and chronic sinusitis have worse cases of bronchiectasis. Doctors should keep in mind the importance of sinus disease in people with bronchiectasis.

An increasing number of clinical trials have investigated the effects of aerobic exercise on different aspects of care among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but their results remain inconsistent to some extent. Therefore, we considered the effects of aerobic exercise on the ability to perform everyday tasks, disease severity, quality of life, and the mental health of patients with COPD.

We reviewed 20 studies with over 1,000 total participants and concluded that aerobic exercise training significantly improved the ability to perform everyday tasks, lung function, and oxygen saturation (the amount of oxygen in the blood). Also, aerobic exercise training significantly improved cough, disease symptoms, and anxiety among patients with COPD but did not improve depression. We also found that aerobic exercise can provide greater benefits in the long term. Moreover, those with milder disease were more likely to benefit from aerobic exercise.

Aerobic exercise can improve the rehabilitation of patients with COPD. Aerobic exercise training should be started in the initial stages of the disease and continued in the long term.

Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is a rare, inherited disease associated with both liver and lung damage. Obesity is common in alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and may add to worse symptoms and a reduced quality of life. Because obesity is a health condition that can possibly be improved, understanding its effect is important to the alpha-1 community.

In this study, we examined data from a large group of adults with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency and lung disease. We compared individuals with severe obesity to those with a lower body weight, focusing on breathing symptoms, physical limits, and quality of life. All information was collected using standardized questionnaires and information provided by participants.

We found that people with severe obesity experienced worse breathing symptoms, more difficulty with physical activities, and a poorer quality of life than those who were not severely obese. These differences remained even after accounting for other health and other factors such as age, income, education, background, and more.

Overall, the findings show that severe obesity adds an extra burden for people living with alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. Addressing weight-related factors may offer an important opportunity to improve daily activity and overall well-being in this population.