COPD is a chronic and progressive disease that requires regular self-administration of inhaled medications. However, as the disease progresses, reduced respiratory muscle strength may prevent patients from generating sufficient inspiratory effort to effectively use dry-powder inhalers (DPIs) [1, 2]. In contrast, patients can inhale slowly or breathe tidally from a pMDI with VHC without the need to coordinate with inhaler actuation [3].
We compared the dose delivery characteristics using recorded inspiratory flow profiles generated by patients with varying severity of COPD. The participants were recorded when using a medium inspiratory flow resistance DPI compared with inhalation of the same active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) inhaled via a pMDI + VHC.