Respiration Rate Monitoring in COPD Patients

The research question is whether monitoring of respiration rates and variability can be helpful in management of COPD patients in conjunction with or separately from self-reported symptom scores using the COPD Co-PILOT application. Current techniques (such as patient's self-reported symptoms) have limited sensitivity and specificity with regard to predicting decompensation. Measurement of respiration parameters and the variability of the parameters may detect worsening COPD. Changes in respiration patterns may occur sufficiently far in advance of decompensation (e.g. >5 days prior to patient symptoms) such that it would allow an opportunity for earlier intervention with medical assessment and current therapeutic approaches.

The specific primary aim includes evaluation of the correlation of respiration rate parameters to indicators of healthcare utilization including drug changes, office or ER visits, hospitalization, or other clinical interventions. Secondary aims include evaluation of (i) the sensitivity and specificity of respiration rate monitoring results to predict COPD worsening requiring medical intervention, (ii) the sensitivity and specificity of respiration rate monitoring results in conjunction with COPD Co-PILOT scores or components to predict COPD worsening requiring medical intervention, and the correlation of respiration rate parameters to episode duration as defined by number of days from COPD Co-PILOT Score >1 to resolution (COPD Co-PILOT Score <1 for 7 consecutive days).