BUSQUEDA ACTIVA DE CASOS DE EPOC EN EL PRIMER NIVEL DE ATENCION: USO DEL SCORE PUMA PARA TAMIZAJE DE EPOC

PUMA (Prevalence StUdy and Regular Practice, Diagnosis and TreatMent, Among General Practitioners in Populations at Risk of COPD in Latin America) study, a multicenter, multinational, cross-sectional, non-interventionist study, explored COPD prevalence among high risk patients assisted in primary care centers in 4 Latin American countries High risk condition was defined if the patient was older than 40 years and current or former smokers (≥10 pack-years, ≥50 pipes/year, or ≥50 cigars/year), and/or reported exposure to biomass smoke, such as wood or coal, for cooking or heating (exposure ≥100h/year). Patients were enrolled during routine, spontaneous or scheduled visits to their medical appointment neither related with the study nor respiratory services or specialists as well. COPD was defined as post-bronchodilator (post-BD) forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC) <0.70 and the lower limit of normal (LLN) of FEV1/FVC.

Based on PUMA study data, a simple and a weighted score was constructed with seven variables: sex, age, pack-years smoking, dyspnea, sputum, cough and previous spirometry selected from the PLATINO questionnaire. The score had a mean accuracy for detecting COPD (post-BD FEV1/FVC <0.70) for high risk population of 76% and 79% for the simple and weighted scores, respectively.

This study is a prospective case finding study based on PUMA score as screening tool in unselected high risk patients attending to a primary care health care venue in real world scenario (e.g. community hospital, university institutions or other primary care settings). Patients older than 40 years of age and ever smoker of at least 10 pack year will be asked to complete the PUMA questionnaire through an specially designed application and electronic database (RedCap). All patients who with PUMA score ≥ 5, will be referred to perform spirometry at the institution.

Recruitment will be done by primary care physicians during regular consultations for any reason and spirometry will be performed by qualified technicians using the EasyOne® (nnd) spirometer. The quality of the spirometry will be evaluated by the central team that may request a second measurement to satisfy quality.

COPD will be diagnosed with fixed FEV1/FVC ratio (forced expiratory volume in the first second or FEV1 divided by forced vital capacity or FVC) less than 0.7.