TY - JOUR T1 - Precision medicine in COPD: review of mepolizumab for eosinophilic COPD JF - Breathe JO - Breathe SP - 338 LP - 341 DO - 10.1183/20734735.026318 VL - 14 IS - 4 AU - Gabriella Long AU - Jasmine Wall Y1 - 2018/12/01 UR - http://breathe.ersjournals.com/content/14/4/338.abstract N2 - Precision medicine for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) can improve management for those who may have otherwise exhausted conventional therapy. Approximately 40% of patients with COPD have a persistently elevated blood eosinophil count ≥150 cells·μL−1 [1]. Blood eosinophils are reflective of sputum eosinophil count, which is used as a marker of eosinophilic airway inflammation [2, 3]. Debatably, raised blood eosinophils identify a distinct COPD phenotype with increased frequency and severity of exacerbations [4–6]. Guiding corticosteroid treatment according to the level of blood eosinophils results in a reduction in exacerbations, which is indicative of its value as a biomarker of corticosteroid responsiveness [7–9]. However, the use of inhaled corticosteroids has been associated with increased risk of pneumonia [10, 11].Mepolizumab can reduce exacerbation rates in those with frequently exacerbating, severe COPD and raised blood eosinophils; this represents a further advance in precision medicine for COPD and targeted therapies http://ow.ly/uklu30m4YcU ER -