Differences in baseline factors and survival between normocapnia, compensated respiratory acidosis and decompensated respiratory acidosis in COPD exacerbation: A pilot study

Background and objective Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experiencing acute exacerbation (AE‐COPD) with decompensated respiratory acidosis are known to have poor outcomes in terms of recurrent respiratory failure and death. However, the outcomes of AE‐COPD patients with compensated respiratory acidosis are not known. Methods We performed a 1‐year prospective, single‐centre, cohort study in patients surviving the index admission for AE‐COPD to compare baseline factors between groups with normocapnia, compensated respiratory acidosis and decompensated respiratory acidosis. Survival analysis was done to examine time to readmissions, life‐threatening events and death. Results A total of 250 patients fulfilling the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited and 245 patients were analysed. Compared with normocapnia, both compensated and decompensated respiratory acidosis are associated with lower FEV1 % (P