The role of tiotropium bromide, a long-acting anticholinergic bronchodilator, in the management of COPD.

Bronchodilator therapy forms the mainstay of treatment for symptomatic patients with COPD. Long-acting bronchodilators, which maintain sustained airway patency over a 24-hour period, represent an advance in therapy. Tiotropium bromide is a new long-acting inhaled anticholinergic agent with superior pharmacodynamic properties compared with the short-acting anticholinergic, ipratropium bromide. Tiotropium bromide has been consistently shown to have a greater impact than ipratropium bromide on clinically important outcome measures such as health status. The mechanisms of clinical benefit with tiotropium bromide are multifactorial, but improved airway function, which enhances lung emptying and allows sustained deflation of over-inflated lungs, appears to explain improvements in dyspnea and exercise endurance in COPD. Inhaled tiotropium bromide therapy has also been associated with reduction in acute exacerbations of COPD as well as reduced hospitalizations. The safety profile of tiotropium bromide is impressive: dry mouth is the most common adverse event and rarely necessitates termination of the drug. No tachyphylaxis to tiotropium bromide has been demonstrated in clinical trials lasting up to 1 year. There is preliminary information that the combination of long-acting anticholinergics and long-acting beta2-adrenoceptor agonists provides additive physiological and clinical benefits. According to recent international guidelines, long-acting bronchodilators should be considered early in the management of symptomatic patients with COPD in order to achieve effective symptom alleviation and reduction in activity limitation. Tiotropium bromide, because of its once-daily administration and its established efficacy and tolerability profile, has emerged as an attractive therapeutic option for this condition.