Awareness is key to COPD management

Express Healthcare along with S P A G organised a Knowledge Exchange with Dr Prashant N Chhajed, Chief Pulmonologist: Lung Care and Sleep Centre, Fortis Hospitals, Vashi and Mulund and consultant, Lilavati & Nanavati Hospitals and Dr Lancelot Pinto, Consultant Respirologist, Department of Respiratory Medicine, PD Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, on the occasion of World COPD Day, in order to spread awareness on the right diagnosis and management of the disease. Excerpts from the programme

Throw some light on the prevalence of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in India. What are the determinants for the rise of COPD ? What are the treatment protocols currently available in our country?

Dr Prashant N Chhajed: Various studies conducted have stated that the prevalence could be between four to nine per cent. Presently, in India, we have at least 30 million people suffering from COPD.

One of the dominant causes of COPD is smoking. Long-term smoking is definitely linked to COPD. There is another concept known as non-smoking COPD.

The elements for non-smoking COPD are:

• Indoor pollution particularly in countries like India and other developing countries is basically due to chula fume exposures.
• Exposure to biomass fuel, which is widely used across the country
• Environmental pollution also contributes to COPD particularly in areas where there are high urbanisation or high pollution levels. People living in those areas have a high risk of developing COPD.

What are the current treatment protocols available for Indian COPD patients today?

Dr Chhajed: I think the treatment protocols are uniform. The therapy for COPD is at multiple levels. There is a multi-disciplinary approach to the management of COPD. It includes giving inhalers, particularly inhaled bronchodilators. We also recommend use of oral tablets, oral Theophyllines, pulmonary rehabilitation, vaccinations, taking care of osteoporosis and patients who are at advanced COPD might need oxygen therapy at home and non-invasive ventilation.

The therapy for COPD should be uniform everywhere.

Give us an overview of what is happening abroad and how it’s different in India (with reference to the treatment protocols)?

Dr Lancelot Pinto: When we talk about management, we begin with the first step that is prevention, then treatment and lastly follow up. So in terms of prevention, worldwide smoking rates are dipping. We know for the fact that regulations have played a significant role in curbing smoking habits, with stringent taxes being implemented it will further reduce the number of smokers. In India, smoking among women is on the rise and these are the people who eventually are going to develop COPD. In terms of prevention, we aren’t really doing enough. Although the government has taken a couple of very good steps in terms of universal packaging of cigarette packets, the warning etc., is a step in the right direction. Biomass fuel is a big contributor to COPD in India. As compared to the rest of the world, where only 25 per cent of the world’s population use solid fuels for cooking, 75 per cent of Indian households use coal and solid fuels for cooking. This leads to lot of pollutants, which eventually has a strong link with COPD. We definitely need to do a lot more in terms of prevention as compared to the rest of the world.

Diagnosis will involve the use of a spirometer which is the gold standard for the diagnosis of COPD and it is what is used all over the world. A recent study in India among general practitioners states that less than 25 per cent prescribe spirometry to their patients, which means if we are not diagnosing them then treatment is still far off.

When it comes to the treatment, it is pretty uniform all over the world. What you need is a good dual bronchodilators which are used everywhere in the world but there is a big phobia in India to prescribe inhalers. Inhalers are associated with all sorts of myths in India. Patients constantly ask if they will get addicted to inhalers. They don’t ask a diabetologist if they will get addicted to their diabetes medication but for some reason, the concept of ‘you need inhalers’ is equivalent to ‘you will get dependent on inhalers’. As a result, most physicians end up prescribing tablets instead of inhalers. And that is not recommended globally. This is where we lack and there is huge reluctance to prescribe. When it comes to follow up, vaccinations or pulmonary rehabilitation for example which are shown to alter the quality of life to a great extent, hardly anyone practices pulmonary rehabilitation and there are a various reasons associated with it. It involves intense follow up, a system where a patient has a referral point and can visit again and again. We don’t have the kind of infrastructure to deal with the situation.

What is the ideal treatment protocol that Indians should follow?

Dr Chhajed: There should be an uniform protocol as also pointed out by Dr Pinto. A lot of effort should be put in preventing COPD. As Dr Pinto mentioned, it is more difficult to smoke in public places. But it needs to be implemented in a much stronger way.

Exposure to bio-mass fuels need to be tackled in a big way because a large chunk of patients who are non-smoking COPD end up inhaling polluted air. Hence, prevention at that level is very important. Once preventive aspects are taken into account, you need to diagnose them properly. Early diagnosis is important as progression of the disease can be delayed and you can actually give them a better quality of life. Exacerbations can be reduced. Every time a patient has an exacerbation, he/ she loses lung function. So, I think the treatment protocol has to be same.

The Indian guidelines have been slightly tweaked so that Indian practitioners can implement them properly. But mind you, the mean principles of therapy remain the same. A few recommendations may go up and down based on the availability of medication, cost of medication etc., but overall, I think the approach is same. Being part of various committees in India also, we would not like to have something tangent to what the world is doing.

What are the Indian protocols followed currently?

Dr Chhajed: Prevention protocols remain the same. As for the treatment protocols, we provide inhaled bronchodilators. Inhaled bronchodilators are important for patients with COPD. And now recently, there has been a lot of evidence emerging that the focus should be mainly on inhaled bronchodilators or rather inhaled dual bronchodilation which actually improves the symptoms of the patient and gives them a better quality of life. This is the first approach.

As Dr Pinto also mentioned, many patients are being prescribed oral tablets first. Oral tablets should be prescribed much later, as they are more of an add on therapy rather than the main stay therapy. Of course inhaled corticosteroids, which are the main stay of asthma treatment are again add ons, which can be used on selected number of patients. Hence, according to me, these protocols should be followed by our physicians. A general physician should ask for a spirometry on the same lines as asking for for an X-ray or for a complete blood count. Once the practise is inculcated, the next step would be to enquire about the lung function followed by what is going to be the therapy.

Dr Pinto, you talked about the myths that patients have about inhalers. How much do doctors have these myths and how do we break it?

Dr Pinto: Education is the answer to all problems. Whether doctors genuinely believe in these myths themselves or whether they are catering to their clientele, it’s a difficult question to answer. Very often, you do not, not want the patient to come back to you simply because you prescribed a medicine which is not in line with their social believes or what they believed to be right. There is a stigma associated with inhalers. People believe that if you are put on inhalers, you have a disease. And physicians also to a large extent, are reluctant to prescribe them to patients. One of the ways we can dispel such myths is through educating people that the dose which you get in an inhaler is a minute fraction of the dose that you would take as a tablet because it directly gets deposited into the lungs versus going into the circulation, going to the blood stream, then reaching your lungs. Explaining that to patients often helps. I usually put down numbers down to explain patients saying that if I had to give you something orally it would be in milligrams, what I am giving you now is in micrograms. In this way patients understand that an inhaler is a milder dose. Therefore, I think educating physicians as well as patients will make a huge difference. Another reality is that inhalers are more expensive than tablets and there is also a cost dynamic to the whole situation. So it’s not just the myth. Bringing down the price of inhalers would also help.

Dr Chhajed: Having said that , acceptance of inhalers in on the rise. Particularly in the urban areas where we practice, we see it is not as difficult to initiate someone on a inhaler therapy than it was some years ago. Thanks to educating patients and multiple campaigns, CME’s, media etc., which have actually promoted this.

Do you see a lack of understanding in treatment protocols among physicians?

Dr Chhajed: I think it is universal problem. What is happening is that within few years, you are having newer guidelines. But I think an important step has been taken as far as the medical council requirements are there, which is called as the CME points. It is forcing people to attend CME’s, which allows us to dissipate knowledge to the physicians or the practitioners at large.

Do you see a lack of diagnosis happening?

Dr Pinto: That’s a huge problem for sure. There is a lack of spirometers in the country. Studies that have looked at the diagnostics skills of physicians have found that if a physician solely relies on the diagnostic skills for diagnosing COPD, about half of all the patients will be missed. OS spirometry should be performed on patients suspected of having obstructive airway disease. And that is solely lacking in our country and the lack of trained technicians to conduct spirometry. That is the unfortunate part. Unlike an ECG, where you can pretty much train anybody to just get it done, spirometry is a patient-effort dependent process. So the same patient going for spirometry with three different technicians all of whom are variably trained will have different results with all those technicians. Good quality spirometry makes a huge difference and is the first step towards diagnosing COPD.

People usually associate Asthma with COPD. I want you to throw some light on whether asthma literally means COPD or there is a difference between the two diseases.

Dr Chhajed: There is a difference between asthma and COPD. In India, asthma has different names in local languages, Dama etc. Unfortunately, COPD does not. So most often, asthma and COPD get clubbed as dama and the approach for treating both have been the same. However, it is important to highlight the difference between them. Asthma can happen in young patients. COPD typically happens in people who are elderly who have a history of smoking or those who have exposure to some air pollutants. In asthma, patients can have symptoms and once they are treated they completely become normal. However, if you look at COPD, it is a progressive disease. So the symptoms stay for a long time and patients require regular therapy. In case of asthma patients, they require regular therapy especially in cases of progressive asthma. Another thing to differentiate between asthma and COPD is that asthma is a reversible disease, but COPD is not. So if someone is getting an airway narrowing, providing inhalers to patients with proper treatment will help the airway become normal. COPD patients will get symptomatic benefit but the airways do not open up completely therefore, it is not a reversible disease. Another important reason that we must differentiate between the two is the change in the therapy approach. We have emerging evidence to say that it is important to differentiate between the two.

What role should physicians play in creating awareness about asthma and COPD and the difference between the two?

Dr Pinto: Asthma is predominantly an allergic diseases. In patients who have nasal allergies, skin allergies and have shortness of breath it is most likely asthma than COPD. In terms of awareness, putting a label to a disease makes a huge difference. One of the things we commonly notice is physicians are normally little reluctant to tell a patient with asthma that he has asthma so we have a lot of terms floating around like bronchitis, like allergic lung disease, like allergic bronchitis etc. Just informing a patient that he/ she has asthma is empowering because you have given him or her a diagnosis, you have given him/ her a prognosis on a disease which can be worked on. Going for regular treatments, one can live an absolutely normal life. And the same holds true for individuals with COPD. Putting a label on their diseases makes them sensitise towards how important it is to stop smoking, will sensitise them towards new treatments available. And as physicians of course, all of us play a role in disseminating information as part of CME’s, as part of like world COPD day where you go out and educate people about the diseases such as COPD whether it is in the media or newspapers, through whatever channels you have access to that is very important as well.

Since you are into management of COPD and empowering patients, what should be done to empower patients to better understand COPD and to manage their disease on their own?

Dr Pinto: Education is the most important thing in terms of empowerment of patient. Starting with diagnosis, giving them a diagnosis and letting them know what they have and giving them all the treatment options that are available. In terms of education, prevention again is the most important key, so educating people on the ill effects of indoor and outdoor air pollution could lead to a mass movement where you pressurise your local government and try and make a difference in terms of air pollution. Switching over to healthier fuel for example is extremely important and I think that kind of empowerment is needed. We are seeing a lot of public campaigns that can change things. Educating your patient about their medical condition and treatment provided is important.

There is a rising population of people with CVD’s and COPD, so how can physicians educate their patients and firstly diagnose this dual condition and how to manage it?

Dr Pinto: Some are them are what we call shared co-morbidities. The fact that an elderly person is already prone to developing heart disease whether he has COPD or not. Then also there is a clear link that has been established between COPD and CVD’s. The no 1 cause of death for COPD patients is cardiovascular disease. One fifth of the patients with COPD will have underlying chronic heart failure. A clinical examination of course makes a difference. When a physician is seeing a patient and you suspect COPD, you need to look at signs of heart failure as well. Doing a screening always help simple things like an ECG to begin with. What also helps is if a person has shortness of breath, which seems to be out of proportion to the degree of impairment seen on a spirometry or once you optimised the treatment for the COPD and if the patient still feels short of breath, then you definitely need to think in terms of other possibilities for that shortness of breath such as heart disease. You need to look out for signs of co-morbidities and those include heart disease, high blood pressure, metabolic disease such diabetes, OSA and of course diseases such as osteoporosis and even depression. So, patients with COPD are about 2.5 times likely to be depressed than patients without COPD. And therefore it becomes important to screen COPD patients for these diseases because it is not enough just to treat COPD and ignore all these other conditions along with it.

Share some insights on the research activities happening on COPD in India? And where do we stand when compared to other countries?

Dr Chhajed: We stand very low as far as research activities are concerned. There is a potential to do more, as far as research activities are concerned. Because we have local factors that influence COPD, which is the patient’s locality, understanding of the disease, factors leading to COPD for these patient’s, what therapies are feasible, for example first line molecule and is it easily available to the common man. There is a big need that we should initiate and increase the research in this field. An important step has been taken in India.

For example, the non-smoking COPD, the dominant research in this area has actually come from India. So it’s not completely bad. There is some research activity happening in India as well. We are contributing to the literature in the science and medicine of COPD. But it is also important to understand the local factors so that we can identify our special cases. We can identify our patients who are at a higher risk, diagnose them early and put them onto the therapies earlier. For example in the West you will see that most of the teaching institutions or university hospitals will have a COPD cohort for example. A COPD cohort is a group of COPD patients who come to a clinic and they are monitored over a period of time. And that gives a tremendous insight into how local patterns are, local behaviour, how are the patients responding. The co-morbidities which the patient will face, is it similar in the West or different. You will have an answer to these questions only if you study your local COPD population. I think there needs to be a concentrated effort at all levels, private research institutes, medical institutions, industry support, government support. Support is required at all levels just because COPD is becoming the third leading cause of death and is becoming a huge cause of morbidity worldwide. The current expenditure cost of COPD burden is at Rs 35000 crores and in the next few years is expected to reach Rs 48000 crores. I think a little bit of investment in research will go a big way in tackling this problem.

How important is it for the medical fraternity to work with the government to streamline air control policies and implement them?

Dr Pinto: It is extremely important for the medical fraternity to liaison with the government and some of it comes from research. There is a paper that highlights incidence of obstructive airway disease and the distance to the highway, the closer you are to the highway the more likely you are to have an obstructive airway disease.

Our primary role would be to present data/ evidence to the government and lobbying from both the community at large and from physicians in terms of sensitising the government. It is tricky because there are religious sentiments attached to these festivals like Diwali and bursting crackers. So, it is definitely not going to be an open and shut legislative thing, but engaging everybody and sensitising people on how important this and how it can go a long way in changing policy. People now realise about the ill effects of smoking. For example, if in a restaurant a person next to you is smoking, you would point it out and make him stop smoking. But this is not enough to tackle the air quality outside. I think that kind of momentum has to come from the public as well.

At present, if we can’t stop people from bursting crackers, are there any other strategies that can be implemented to control some amount of pollution?

Dr Pinto: Publish air quality indices. People with COPD can be advised not to venture outside when the air quality is extremely poor because it is linked with exacerbations. Having that kind of transparency on an on-going basis will help. There are websites where you can check out the air quality index. But doing that on a mass scale, for example having it at a traffic signal, telling people what the air quality is like on a daily basis would help. At the end of the day, disseminating information that you need air purifiers in the house would take the burden away from the government to ensure that we get clean air and would just shift the burden onto individuals to look after air quality for themselves.

Dr Chhajed: We need to think about the industrial pollution, vehicular pollution as well. As mentioned earlier, it helps to have healthier fuels or greener fuels and I think emphasis has to be made on this aspect as well. In Mumbai, we face this huge problem about the dumping areas which catches fire etc., and leads to a tremendous health hazard.

Are we genetically more susceptible to COPD?

Dr Pinto: There was a study done when the lung function of different countries (pure study) were looked upon. Indians have around 33 per cent lower function than the reference which is Caucasians. We have one of the lowest lung functions in the world even lower than sub-Saharan Africa. We don’t know what the cause is, so if we begin at a lower lung function and then we smoke or are exposed to biomass fuels, then yes, we are definitely more susceptible to developing COPD.

Dr Chhajed: Cardiologists say that coronaries are much smaller than the Caucasians, hence you are a higher risk of coronary disease then your counterparts around the world.

We have been talking about a lack of data so how can we make COPD management more evidence based?

Dr Pinto: All of us can contribute in our own way in terms of developing this evidence. For example is Biomass-related COPD identical to smoking associated COPD, a question as simple as that, yet there are various studies related to that. And the few studies suggest yes they are different. Biomass fuel associated COPD is more likely to be associated to chronic bronchitis where you can produce a lot of sputum and would probably respond to inhaled corticosteroids. And that is not the same for smoking-related COPD. That is in creating and collection of evidence. The other part is in the dissemination of the evidence.

Dr Chhajed: How many institutions are providing research, how many teaching institutions are giving out quality publications? Is research encouraged in the curriculum? Can a doctor, who has finished his MBBS or MD, get into research for a few years? Does he have any person to support him? These are some of the important questions that need to be answered. In the western world, where we have both spent time, we could do research because there was a support which encourages research. As a clinician also there are systems that allow you to do research. Funding is available and yes research is in fact important and that needs to be inculcated more and more into our systems.

Is there a need for the government to create a fund in India for research?

Dr Chhajed: There are government funds, there are research institutes, we do have government centres of excellence and medical institutions that are doing research. However, it needs to be done on a much larger scale. And it needs to be a priority which shows that we are looking at a long term goal and not a short term goal.

(The session was moderated by Raelene Kambli)