The natural history of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is marked by acute, episodic attacks known as exacerbations of COPD. These events are associated with increased systemic inflammation, lung function decline, hospitalization, and mortality. Despite their high clinical burden, the mechanisms underlying exacerbations, as well as effective approaches to their diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment, represent important unmet clinical care gaps.
CAN-EXACT is a prospective longitudinal observational cohort consisting of patient participants with moderate, severe, and very severe COPD with a history of frequent exacerbations. Participants undergo detailed clinical, physiological, imaging, and biological assessments at baseline and at a two-year follow-up visit. Every two weeks, participants complete self-reported symptom and exacerbation questionnaires and continuously wear a biometric wristband to remotely monitor respiratory, cardiac, sleep, physical activity, and autonomic parameters. When participants experience an exacerbation requiring in-person unscheduled acute care, several bedside tests and procedures are performed on each occasion. Biological samples, collected both at the baseline and the follow-up study visits as well as during each acute exacerbation requiring in-person care, are analyzed and are then transferred to a biobank.
This overall cohort design allows for both the comprehensive phenotyping of baseline clinical risk factors as well as for the deep phenotyping of each individual acute event.