Background. The pharmacological association umeclidinium/vilanterol (UMEC/VI) allows to implement an effective dual bronchodilation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), optimizing bronchodilating therapy.

Methods. The main purpose of our real-world observational study was to evaluate in COPD patients the effects of UMEC/VI on lung function and respiratory symptoms. Functional and clinical parameters were assessed at baseline and after 52 weeks of treatment.

Results. We enrolled 110 subjects suffering from COPD. A 12-month UMEC/VI treatment induced significant improvements in total lung capacity (TLC) (p < 0.05) and residual volume (RV) (p < 0.0001). Pulmonary deflation was paralleled by significant increases of forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV₁) (p < 0.0001), forced vital capacity (FVC) (p < 0.01), forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of FVC (FEF_25-75) (p < 0.0001) and diffusion capacity of the lung (p < 0.05). In addition, in the same period we also observed significant reductions of airway resistance including total resistance (R_tot) (p < 0.0001) and specific effective resistance (sR_eff) (p < 0.0001). Other improvements were detected with regard to modified British Medical Research Council (mMRC) questionnaire score (p < 0.0001), COPD Assessment Test (CAT) score (p < 0.0001), and exacerbation rate (p < 0.0001). In particular, the reported changes of mMRC/CAT scores and COPD exacerbation numbers were significantly correlated with UMEC/VI-induced modifications of TLC, RV, FVC and FEV₁. 

Conclusions. Our study corroborates in a real-life context the effectiveness of UMEC/VI in COPD treatment.