Efficacy and Safety of Indacaterol vs Tiotropium From Baseline to 24 Weeks, in Women With Moderate-severe COPD Secondary to Biomass Exposure: Randomized, Non Inferior, Open Label, Parallel Groups Clinical Trial

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a disease that produces a high rate of social and economic health mortality and morbidity not only in our country but in the international field. The causes of this disease are well-known, being smoking what produces the major portion and the less (but no less important) frequently, biomass exposure (when people cook or warm the house). It is described that the COPD secondary to biomass exposure it is approximately a third half of all the cases in cohorts in patients with this disease.

Patients clinical affection with COPD by biomass is different from the one described in patients by smoking, being the most frequent the affection peripheral airway, with major proportion of symptoms such as dyspnoea, cough and expectoration (Phenotype "chronic bronchitis"), major frequency of exacerbations, as well as, major affection in the quality of life related to health and a minimum emphysema proportion.

Currently, there is a trend of paying attention on the outcomes based on patients, such as symptoms, quality of life and the risk prevention (exacerbations) as it is exposed in the strategy GOLD 2011. In that way, the bronchodilators use as a pillar in the COPD due to the utility for the exacerbation prevention, symptomatic improvement and in quality of life, predominating the utility of ultra long-acting bronchodilators, such as tiotropium. Recently, it is available more information on new bronchodilators as indacaterol, demonstrating at least no inferiority effect on FEV1, inspiring capacity (in fact, discreet superiority on the last one) and symptoms. A functional outcome clinically important is the capacity of exercising; Six-Minute Walk Test (6MWT) has been widely used to predict prognosis of COPD secondary to smoking. This test has not been evaluated in predicting the response to the specific treatment in patients with COPD secondary to biomass exposure.

Long-acting bronchodilators have been demonstrated a benefit to the patients with COPD by smoking, in the exercising capacity measured by 6MWT. There are several reasons why this outcome could be more relevant especially in this population: inhabit in rural areas where people walk long distances, most of them are women and they are usually in charge of all the housework.

Almost all the studies reported until now exclude patients with COPD due to some cause other than smoking. Due to the lack of information on this item and the particularities in this clinical and functional characteristics observed in this kind of patients, it is considered that these patients will be benefit with the use of ultra long-acting bronchodilators, to long period and, potentially can be observed additional benefits in the decrease of the frequency of the exacerbations and symptomatology as well as other important outcomes such as the functional, respiratory capacity among others.