ORIGINAL ARTICLE Respiratory Diseases DOI: 10.3346/jkms.2011.26.3.379 • J Korean Med Sci 2011; 26: 379-385 Predictors of Pulmonary Function Response to Treatment with Salmeterol/fluticasone in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Jae Seung Lee1, Jin Won Huh1, Eun Jin Chae2, Joon Beom Seo2, Seung Won Ra3, Ji-Hyun Lee4, Eun-Kyung Kim4, Young Kyung Lee5, Tae-Hyung Kim6, Woo Jin Kim7, Jin Hwa Lee8, Sang-Min Lee9, Sangyeub Lee10, Seong Yong Lim11, Tae Rim Shin12, Ho Il Yoon13, Seung Soo Sheen14, Yeon-Mok Oh1, and Sang-Do Lee1 1Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Asthma Center, and Clinical Research Center for Chronic Obstructive Airway Diseases, 2Department of Radiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul; 3Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Ulsan University Hospital, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Ulsan; 4Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Bundang CHA Hospital, College of Medicine, CHA University, Seongnam; 5Department of Radiology, East-West Neo Medical Center, Kyunghee University, Seoul; 6Division of Pulmonology, Department of Internal Medicine, Hanyang University Guri Hospital, Hanyang University College of Medicine, Guri; 7Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon; 8Department of Internal Medicine, Ewha Womens University Mokdong Hospital, College of Medicine, Ewha Womans University, Seoul; 9Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Clinical Research Institute, Seoul; 10Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Korea University Anam Hospital, Seoul; 11Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul; 12Department of Internal Medicine, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul; 13Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seongnam; 14Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Ajou University School of Medicine, Suwon, Korea Received: 18 October 2010 Accepted: 24 December 2010 Address for Correspondence: Sang-Do Lee, MD Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and Clinical Research Center for Chronic Obstructive Airway Diseases, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, 86 Asanbyeongwon-gil, Sonpa-gu, Seoul 138-736, Korea Tel: +82.2-3010-3140, Fax: +82.2-3010-6968 E-mail: sdlee@amc.seoul.kr This study was supported by a grant of the Korea Healthcare technology R&D Project, Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, Republic of Korea (A040153) and by the Asan Institute for Life Science (07-306). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a heterogeneous disease and responses to therapies are highly variable. The aim of this study was to identify the predictors of pulmonary function response to 3 months of treatment with salmeterol/fluticasone in patients with COPD. A total of 127 patients with stable COPD from the Korean Obstructive Lung Disease (KOLD) Cohort, which were prospectively recruited from June 2005 to September 2009, were analyzed retrospectively. The prediction models for the FEV1, FVC and IC/TLC changes after 3 months of treatment with salmeterol/fluticasone were constructed by using multiple, stepwise, linear regression analysis. The prediction model for the FEV1 change after 3 months of treatment included wheezing history, pre-bronchodilator FEV1, post-bronchodilator FEV1 change and emphysema extent on CT (R = 0.578). The prediction models for the FVC change after 3 months of treatment included pre- bronchodilator FVC, post-bronchodilator FVC change (R = 0.533), and those of IC/ TLC change after 3 months of treatment did pre-bronchodilator IC/TLC and post- bronchodilator FEV1 change (R = 0.401). Wheezing history, pre-bronchodilator pulmonary function, bronchodilator responsiveness, and emphysema extent may be used for predicting the pulmonary function response to 3 months of treatment with salmeterol/fluticasone in patients with COPD. Key Words: Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; Emphysema; Corticosteroids; Adrenergic beta-Agonists; Respiratory Function Tests © 2011 The Korean Academy of Medical Sciences. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. pISSN 1011-8934 eISSN 1598-6357