Background: The findings of the Understanding Potential Long-term Impacts on Function with Tiotropium (UPLIFT) study may be poorly generalisable to tiotropium use in clinical practice.
Methods: An audit of 226 patients admitted to Wellington Hospital with a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation determined the proportion of patients prescribed tiotropium on discharge that would have been ineligible for inclusion in the UPLIFT study.
Results: Among 100 patients prescribed tiotropium, 38/100; 38% (95% CI 28.5% to 48.3%) would have been ineligible for UPLIFT at the time of the hospital discharge due to recent cardiovascular comorbidity or moderate to severe renal impairment.
Conclusions: The UPLIFT findings have limited generalisability to over a third of patients prescribed tiotropium following a hospital admission with a chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation in New Zealand.
Keywords: COPD Pharmacology.