OBJECTIVE

The prevalence of eosinophilia in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is of great importance for the prevention of complications and to treat episodes of overactivity. The existence of a bio-marker would allow this monitoring. The review of the literature reveals the possible eosinophilia-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease relationship. There is little information in medical studies.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

We designed a descriptive observational study of the population attended in the external consultation of Pneumology in the University Hospital of Puebla. The following variables were analyzed: age, sex, years of diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, blood count (diagnosis of eosinophilia with > 2% or more than 200 total cells), severity (by GOLD) and number of exacerbations in one year of study.

RESULTS

Fifty patients with a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (74% female and 26% male), 50% associated with smoking and 50% associated with wood smoke were present; 36% had representative eosinophilia (greater than 2% or greater than 200 total cells), 64% had non-representative eosinophilia (less than 2% or less than 200 total cells).

CONCLUSION

This work demonstrates in a population the importance of eosinophilia as a biomarker in the phenotype of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that allows adequate treatment and aimed at improving quality of life and to decrease the progression and appearance of complications and exacerbations.