• Francisco-Javier Gonzalez-Barcala, Maria-Esther San-Jose, Juan-José Nieto-Fontarigo, Uxio Calvo-Alvarez, Jose-Martín Carreira, Maria-Teresa Garcia-Sanz, Xavier Muñoz, Maria-Purificacion Perez-Lopez-Corona, Maria-Jose Gómez-Conde, Alejandro Casas-Fernández, Luis Valdes-Cuadrado, Lara Mateo-Mosquera, and Francisco-Javier Salgado.
• Department of Medicine, University of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago, Spain.
• Int. J. Clin. Pract. 2019 Oct 1: e13423e13423.

AbstractIntroduction The aim of analysing the usefulness of the blood eosinophil count (BEC) as a prognostic marker in exacerbations of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), evaluating its relationship with hospital mortality, the length of stay and the early and late re-admissions. Materials and Methods We have carried out a retrospective study including all patients who required hospital admission from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2009, with a diagnosis on hospital discharge of COPD exacerbation. These patients were classified using three cut-off points of BEC: less than 200 vs ≥ 200/µL, less than 300 vs ≥ 300/µL and less than 400 vs ≥ 400/µL. Results There were a total of 1626 hospital admissions during the study period with the diagnosis of exacerbation of COPD. In this study we have included 358 patients. The probability of any late re-admission increased with a BEC ≥ 300/µL (odds ratio: 1.684) and for those with a BEC ≥ 400/µL (odds ratio: 2.068). The BEC does not appear to be related to hospital mortality or the probability of early re-admission after an exacerbation of COPD. Conclusions In our study an elevated BEC is associated with a higher incidence of late hospital readmissions in COPD exacerbations.© 2019 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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