Recognizing influenza may be difficult in older patients with COPD.

2003 MAR 12 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Recognizing influenza in older patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can be difficult.

According to a study from the United States, "A substudy analysis was conducted to determine the clinical characteristics associated with symptomatic, laboratory-documented influenza (LDI) among 2,215 veterans with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who participated in Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Study 448 and who received trivalent inactivated influenza virus vaccine with or without intranasal live-attenuated, cold-adapted influenza vaccine."

"Of 585 evaluable first occurrences of acute respiratory illnesses, 94 (16%) were LDI," reported Kathleen M. Neuzil and colleagues at the University of Washington, St. Louis University and the University of Minnesota. "Respiratory symptoms of cough, sputum production, and dyspnea occurred in >90% of patients with LDI; 68% had documented or subjective fever, and 81% had myalgias. Stepwise logistic regression identified only fever and myalgia as being statistically associated with LDI. During the influenza outbreak period, the positive predictive value of fever and myalgia was 41%. Clinical criteria were poor predictors of LDI ...