Clinical and Translational Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2020; 8(13): 2727-2737
Published online Jul 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i13.2727
Role of peripheral eosinophilia in acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chih-Wei Wu, Chou-Chin Lan, Po-Chun Hsieh, I-Shiang Tzeng, Yao-Kuang Wu
Chih-Wei Wu, Chou-Chin Lan, Yao-Kuang Wu, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei City 23142, Taiwan
Po-Chun Hsieh, Department of Chinese Medicine, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei City 23142, Taiwan
I-Shiang Tzeng, Department of Research, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, New Taipei City 23142, Taiwan
Author contributions: Wu YK contributed to the study design and reviewed the manuscript; Tzeng IS and Lan CC analyzed the data. Wu CW contributed to data interpretation and manuscript writing; Hsieh PC contributed to data collection; Wu CW revised the paper.
Supported by Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, No. TCRD-TPE-108-RT-4 and No. TCRD-TPE-108-4.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation Institutional Review Board on September 2019 (protocol number 08-X-094).
Clinical trial registration statement: The study was conducted retrospectively.
Informed consent statement: The informed consent to the study is not required because the clinical data were anonymous.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declared no conflict-of-interest.
Data sharing statement: The authors could obtain the data under the permission of the corresponding author (ykwutzhtpe@gmail.com).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yao-Kuang Wu, MD, Attending Doctor, Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, No. 289 Jianguo Road, Xindian District, New Taipei City 23142, Taiwan. drbfci@yahoo.com.tw
Received: January 16, 2020
Peer-review started: January 16, 2020
First decision: April 14, 2020
Revised: April 26, 2020
Accepted: June 29, 2020
Article in press: June 29, 2020
Published online: July 6, 2020
Core Tip

Core tip: This is the first study in Taiwan that comprehensively evaluates the role of eosinophilia in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Eosinophilic COPD exacerbation is associated with a high risk of readmissions and a short length of hospital stay. It has the characteristics of non-infectious inflammation and is a predictor of steroid therapy. A routine survey of the peripheral blood eosinophil count is warranted for acute COPD exacerbations.