Use of Diagnostic Measures in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in Routine Practice and Their Impact on Treatment Decisions

Inclusion Criteria

• •For participating centers (Sample 1: 30 lung specialists from Germany)
• •More than 10 years of experience in respiratory medicine
• •At least 500 subjects under supervision in hospital- or office-based setting: a) Focus on obstructive lung diseases. b) Board certification. c) Informed consent to participate in this study and to share files of consenting subjects.
• •For subjects (Sample 2: 250 COPD subjects from these 30 doctors from sample 1)
• •Written informed consent to use his/her data.
• •Age \>=40 years
• •Pack years \>10, current or former smoking
• •Duration of COPD: \>=1 year since COPD diagnosis record in subject files (also confirmed by spirometry)
• •No concurrent asthma diagnosis
• •At least one year of documented disease history at participating study doctors and have to be under the care of the before mentioned physician during this time because of COPD.