Long-term treatment with inhaled budesonide in persons with mild chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who continue smoking. European Respiratory Society Study on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
BACKGROUND: Although patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) should stop smoking, some do not. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, we evaluated the effect of the inhaled glucocorticoid budesonide in patients with mild COPD who continued smoking. After a six-month run-in period, we randomly assigned 1277 subjects (mean age, 52 years; mean forced expiratory volume in one