Long-Term Treatment with Inhaled Budesonide in Persons with Mild Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Who Continue Smoking

Abstract

Although patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) should stop smoking, some do not. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, we evaluated the effect of the inhaled glucocorticoid budesonide in subjects with mild COPD who continued smoking. After a six-month run-in period, we randomly assigned 1277 subjects (mean age, 52 years; mean forced expiratory volume in one second [FEV₁], 77 percent of the predicted value; 73 percent men) to twice-daily treatment with 400 μg of budesonide or placebo, inhaled from a dry-powder inhaler, for three years.