A Pilot Safety Study of Inhaled Dry Powder Mannitol in Acute Exacerbations of COPD
Status:
Withdrawn
Trial end date:
2008-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
COPD is a major cause of ill health and death in Australia with 40,000 hospital admissions,
and a national cost of $898,000,000 annually. The gold standard treatment of COPD is steroids
for inflammation, antibiotics for infection and bronchodilators and oxygen for respiratory
failure. However, associated mucus hypersecretion is responsible for much of the inflammation
and infection. The use of pharmaceutical agents to assist in the early clearance of the
retained mucus has been limited, primarily because of lack of demonstrated effect. There has
been a recent development of interest in pursuing new therapies for improving mucociliary
clearance and several studies have demonstrated that clinical outcomes can be improved when
osmotic agents such as mannitol are added to standard treatments. The purpose of this study
is to conduct a pilot safety study in patients with an acute exacerbation of COPD to
determine if it is safe to administer inhaled mannitol for facilitating mucus clearance.