Respiratory Support in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Patients

defined as time from randomisation to hospital admission in relation with severe exacerbation of COPD or death from any cause, whichever event occurred first, estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. If neither event occurs, then time will be taken from day randomisation to the last known follow up visit. If withdrawal occurs prior to death, time will be taken from the day of randomisation to day of withdrawal.

estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method

The number of patients that experience one or more exacerbations resulting in hospitalisation

The number of patients that experience an exacerbation resulting in physician directed treatment, self-management or no treatment change;

Change in arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (PaCO2) in mmHg

Change in arterial partial pressure of oxygen (PaO2) severe respiratory insufficiency in mmHg

Evolution of scores obtained at the St George's respiratory questionnaire. Scores are expressed as a percentage of overall impairment where 100 represents worst possible health status and 0 indicates best possible health status.

Evolution of scores obtained at the Severe Respiratory Insufficiency Questionnaire The SRI consists of seven subscales covering 49 items: Respiratory Complaints (SRI-RC), Physical Functioning (SRI-PF), Attendant Symptoms and Sleep (SRI-AS), Social Relationships (SRI-SR), Anxiety (SRI-AX), Psychological Well-Being (SRI-WB), and Social Functioning (SRI-SF). These seven subscales can be summarised to one Summary Scale (SRI-SS). All items relate to the patients' circumstances of the last week. Rating for each item is provided by a five-point Likert-scale, a scaling method which measures either positive or negative responses to a given statement with five possible grading steps ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree". Higher scores are attributed to better Health Related Quality of life.

Evolution of scores obtained at SF-36 questionnaire. The Short Form (36) Health Survey is a 36-item, patient-reported survey of patient health. The lower the score the more disability. The higher the score the less disability i.e., a score of zero is equivalent to maximum disability and a score of 100 is equivalent to no disability.

Evolution of scores obtained at the EQ5D5L, a standardised measure of health status developed by the EuroQol Group in order to provide a simple, generic measure of health for clinical and economic appraisal1

Evolution of the Charlson Comorbidity Index, a method of categorizing comorbidities of patients based on the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). A score of zero indicates that no comorbidities were found. The higher the score, the more likely the predicted outcome will result in mortality or higher resource use.

Evolution of the CAT score. The COPD Assessment Test (CAT) is a questionnaire for people with COPD. It is designed to measure the impact of COPD on a person's life, and how this changes over time.

Evolution of the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is a self-report questionnaire that assesses sleep quality over a 1-month time interval. The measure consists of 19 individual items, creating 7 components that produce one global score. Each item is weighted on a 0-3 interval scale. The global PSQI score is then calculated by totaling the seven component scores, providing an overall score ranging from 0 to 21, where lower scores denote a healthier sleep quality.

Evolution of the score of Epworth Sleepiness Scale. The questionnaire asks the subject to rate his or her probability of falling asleep on a scale of increasing probability from 0 to 3 for eight different situations that most people engage in during their daily lives, though not necessarily every day. The scores for the eight questions are added together to obtain a single number. A number in the 0-9 range is considered to be normal while a number in the 10-24 range indicates that expert medical advice should be sought

Evolution of the mMRC score. Dyspnea in daily living was evaluated by the mMRC scale which consists in five statements that describe almost the entire range of dyspnea from none (Grade 0) to almost complete incapacity (Grade 4)

Serious adverse events (SAEs) occurrence rate.