Eosinophil counts could be a useful biomarker to determine patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), suggests a recent study by a team led by Helen F. Ashdown at the Department of Primary Care Services, University of Oxford. The findings of the study, published in ERJ Open Research, found that patients with high eosinophil counts appeared to benefit from inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), while those with low counts did not. The research included data from 9,475 patients who met their inclusion criteria, with just over half of whom (53.9%) went on to start ICS therapy while the remainder (46.1%) used only long-acting bronchodilators. The study was able to find that patients with low eosinophils had a greater risk of hospitalisation, and this distinction helped better identify patients who will likely benefit from ICS therapy.