A new tool could help emergency personnel more accurately determine when COPD patients are at greater risk for serious complications. File Photo by Tyler Olson/Shutterstock

Dec. 3 (UPI) -- A new tool could help doctors diagnose patients with a higher risk of dying from COPD, a study says.

Researchers involved with the study used the Ottawa COPD Risk Scale to predict accurate serious health complications in COPD patients at emergency rooms in Alberta and Ontario in Canada.


"Before this tool, there was no way to know if a patient who came to the emergency department with a COPD flare-up was going to have dangerous complications," said Ian Stiell, a senior scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and study author, in a press release. "This new information can help doctors decide whether to admit a patient or send them home."

Researchers followed 1,415 patients over age 50 at six hospitals for 30 days, finding the tool was able to accurately predict that 9.5 percent of the patients would have a serious complication.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, largely brought on by smoking, can cause breathing problems that get worse over time. More than 11 million in the U.S. suffer from COPD, the third leading cause of death in the country, according to the American Lung Association.

"As this risk scale has been clinically validated, it can now be used to estimate medical risk and help with decisions about patient discharge or admission," Stiell said. "This should help decrease unnecessary admissions as well as unsafe discharges of patients with COPD who should be admitted."