60: Acute Exacerbations in Tasmanian COPD Patients

Acquisition of New Strains of Non-Typeable Haemophilus Influenzae is the Leading Cause of Acute Exacerbations in Tasmanian COPD Patients ($43,467)

COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is predominantly a disease of smokers and ex-smokers.  This disease affects the patient’s lungs resulting in a significant reduction in the quality of life and eventually premature death.  A frequent complication of this disorder is the occurrence of acute exacerbations (episodes of increased disease severity often requiring hospitalisation and may sometimes even require mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit).  These episodes of increased disease severity result in additional lung damage and increased susceptibility to further exacerbations causing a cyclic deterioration in patient health.  This highly prevalent disease affects approximately half a million Australians and is associated with a significant burden on the health care system.

 There has been much debate over the last decade on what triggers these acute exacerbations.  Recent research has suggested that lung infection with the bacterium, Haemophilus Influenzae may be a leading cause.  This project proposed to compare the strains of Haemophilus Influenzae persistently present in Tasmanian patients (at baseline) with strains that were present at times of acute exacerbations in order to confirm this causative link between infection with a new strain of Haemophilus Influenzae and exacerbation.

 During the course of the study it became apparent that there is a lack of a good molecular system specifically aimed at detecting Heamophilus Influenzae in patient samples.  A specific molecular method to detect the presence of Haemophilus Influenzae in patient samples was therefore developed and the samples collected in this study were validated.

 Although the study did not proceed as originally planned due to an unexpectedly low number of patient exacerbations within the study period, the study resulted in the development of a new diagnostic tool that has the potential to play a significant role in both future studies and in the diagnosis of Haemophilus Influenzae.