
Documenting short-term variation in blood eosinophil count important in COPD management
Even as there is significant short-time blood eosinophil counts in COPD patients within a day, a lack of this data prevents medical practitioners from adopting the same into the routine of COPD patient management as it does with the long term count. A recent study conducted by Dr Inès Van Rossem and colleagues at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy in the Department of Family Medicine and Chronic Care at the Free University of Brussels, quantified significant short-time blood eosinophil counts in COPD patients within a day, which is also a critical parameter in determining the disease management regime. Dr Rossem pointed out that only long-term blood eosinophil count variability over several years has been documented, however the lack of short-term data prevented medical practitioners from adopting the same into the routine of COPD patient management. The researchers said that they analysed 500 COPD patients to find that there were indeed significant differences between all three time points of blood sample collection.