Toulouse University Hospital is looking for former smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as part of an international study starting in September. It will be a question of testing a new innovative and non-drug treatment.
Calling former smokers. The Toulouse University Hospital is currently looking for former tobacco users with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or emphysema. This pulmonary infection, which affects nearly 3 million French people, is characterized by a persistent drop in the flow of inspired gases. According to WHO, symptoms progressively worsen with shortness of breath on exertion even at rest. The disease is often caused by tobacco smoke, due to active or passive smoking and “tends to be underdiagnosed and can be life-threatening”, warns the WHO.
It is currently incurable and the treatments offered to relieve its symptoms or slow its progression are often insufficient. This is why an American company called Nuvaira has developed a new non-drug process that she wishes to test, among others, in the pulmonology department of the Toulouse University Hospital. The international trial will begin in September.
“The principle of this new therapy consists in introducing a probe via a video-endoscope through the patient’s mouth and performing radiofrequency thermolysis (destruction by heat) in both lungs. The objective is to destroy approximately 50% of the bronchial nerves which control in particular the contraction of the bronchial muscles, abnormal in COPD”, explains the hospital on its website.
Volunteers must have quit smoking for at least two months
If all goes as planned, patients should feel less short of breath and develop fewer infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia. The risks that the disease develops seriously should also decrease.
To participate in the study, you must be between 40 and 75 years old, have quit smoking for at least two months, have suffered from at least two exacerbations of symptoms in the past year with at least one hospitalization and follow the treatment background of COPD. A few other very specific medical criteria are required. If you are interested and you match the requested profile, you can directly contact the pulmonologist Nicolas Guibert at Larrey Hospital (guibert.n@chu-toulouse.fr).
Currently, medical treatments and physiotherapy can help relieve the symptoms of COPD, help patients exercise more easily and improve their quality of life. However, smoking cessation is the most effective treatment to slow the disease in smokers, recalls the WHO. It slows down the progression of the disease and the risk of dying from it.
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