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Study on low-cost treatment for COPD wins medical journal's "People's Choice Paper of the Year" award
Medical News Today
A study led by prominent Chinese medical expert Zhong Nanshan on a low-cost treatment for chronic respiratory disease has been voted “The People’s Choice” for The Lancet medical journal’s Paper of the Year in 2008.
The PEACE study of carbocisteine in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) carried out by Zhong Nanshan and his associates reported a 24.5 percent lower annualized rate of exacerbation of COPD with carbocisteine treatment.
The 1-year placebo-controlled randomized trial of 709 patients from 22 centers in China also found that COPD treatment using carbocisteine, a relatively cheap mucolytic drug, can reduce treatment costs by 85 percent, the report said.
Carbocisteine breaks down mucus (or phlegm) so that it can be more easily cleared from the body. Since one of COPD’s symptoms involves the oversecretion of mucus, mucolytics have great potential for treatment of this disease.
Additional characteristics of COPD include shortness of breath and airway inflammation.
