A Wavelet Tour of Signal Processing, Third Edition: The Sparse Way

There is, to date, no medical therapy that modifies the decline in lung function that occurs in COPD. As the disease becomes more severe, exacerbations of COPD become increasingly common, affecting patient quality of life and increasing health care costs. Mucolytic agents, through their actions on inflammatory and oxidative pathways, have potential benefits in COPD. This paper reviews the randomized controlled trial (RCT) evidence for the effectiveness of at least 2 months of daily therapy with oral mucolytics in COPD. Based on evidence from 26 RCTs, mucolytics reduce exacerbations by up to 0.8 exacerbations per year, with a greater effect in patients with more severe COPD. This effect appears to be of a…