Testosterone replacement therapy slows progression of COPD

A new study published in the journal Chronic Respiratory Disease has found that testosterone replacement therapy may slow disease progression of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(COPD).

Jacques Baillargeon and his associates conducted a study to find out whether testosterone replacement therapy(TRT)reduced the risk of respiratory hospitalizations in middle-aged and older men with COPD.

“Previous studies have suggested that testosterone replacement therapy may have a positive effect on lung function in men with COPD," said Jacques. "However, we are the first to conduct a large-scale nationally representative study on this association."

The researchers conducted retrospective cohort studies of men with COPD using two administrative databases: (1) Clinformatics Data MartTM (CDM) and (2) the national 5% national Medicare database.

The primary outcome was the hospitalization rate for respiratory conditions in the 12 months before versus the 12 months after initiation of >60 days of TRT.

Read Also:Antidepressants increase mortality risk in COPD by 20 percent

The study found that initiation of TRT reduced the risk of hospitalizations for respiratory conditions in middle-aged men but not in older men. Moreover, in both age groups, TRT users had a greater relative decrease in respiratory hospitalizations after initiation of treatment compared with nonusers over a parallel time period. The results also showed that among the older cohort appear to be largely attributable to an increased hospitalization rate in the non-TRT group, rather than to a reduced hospitalization rate in the TRT group.

"We found that testosterone users had a greater decrease in respiratory hospitalizations compared with non-users. Specifically, middle-aged testosterone replacement therapy users had a 4.2 percent greater decrease in respiratory hospitalizations compared with non-users and older testosterone replacement therapy users had a 9.1 percent greater decrease in respiratory hospitalizations compared with non-users," said Baillargeon. "

The study concluded that testosterone replacement therapy may slow the progression of disease in middle-aged men with COPD.

For reference log on to https://doi.org/10.1177/1479972318793004