A panel of Belgian experts within the field of asthma and COPD.The outcomes of this survey were analyzed and discussed by the expert panel.Inclusionexclusion criteria for survey participationPulmonologists from the three Belgian regions (BrusselsCapital, Flanders, and Wallonia) had been identified by means of an out there listing as possible participants for the survey if they had been involved inside the treatment of each adult asthma and COPD patients.Selected participants were contacted by e-mail or phone.Authorities who ready the survey questionnaire have been excluded from participating.surveyThe survey was created by a panel of Belgian authorities in the field of COPD and asthma from the three Belgian regions.The survey incorporated 4 different concerns.Predefined criteria to diagnose COPD and asthma patients as ACOS individuals have been identified by the professionals primarily based onsubmit your manuscript www.dovepress.comInternational Journal of COPD DovepressDovepressBelgian survey on aCOs diagnosispublished guidelines.This survey contained only general questions to pulmonologists about what they regarded to become critical for the diagnosis of a illness (ACOS); no individuals had been involved and no specific patient data have been collected.As a result, the expert panel declared that no involvement from an ethical committee was PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21467283 necessary, and this was confirmed by contacting the ethical committee from University of Liege (Belgium).The very first query in the survey was an openended query “What would be the most important criteria that make you consider of ACOS within a patient List at the very least 3 criteria and rank them from most to least critical.” The second and third concerns have been closeended inquiries, in which the survey participants had been asked to score predefined criteria by their degree of significance, concerning the following subjects “What features are decisive to qualify a COPD patient as ACOS patient” and “What attributes are decisive to qualify an asthma patient as ACOS patient” Survey participants had no access to these criteria just before having finalized their answer to query 1.As a subquestion for concerns two and 3, the participants had been asked to choose the three most significant criteria.The fourth query was again open “What would be the most important criteria for you to prescribe ICS to a COPD patient List at least three criteria and rank them from most to least crucial.” To prevent bias in the scoring of the predefined criteria, questionnaires were created to contain one particular criterion per screenpage, and correction of entries following completion of each and every page was not achievable.Additionally, two versions of the questionnaire have been created with variations inside the order of inquiries two and 3, in each major national languages (French and Dutch).Pulmonologists who RIP2 kinase inhibitor 2 site accepted to participate were randomized to obtain either certainly one of the two readily available questionnaires.Duplication of questionnaires was avoided by asking every single participant to encode hisher name and e mail address. irrelevant; partially irrelevant; I usually do not know not sureno opinion; partially relevant; relevant; and extremely relevant.Throughout the analysis, scores were viewed as as “relevant” criteria and grouped collectively.In addition for the answers around the four abovementioned concerns, the following background facts was collected for every single survey participant the kind of hospital the pulmonologist is operating at (nonacademicacademic), the amount of years of practice ( years), geographical location (Flanders, Wallonia, BrusselsCapital), r.
