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Let’s Keep in Touch
Over the next several years, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health is continuing to support study activities in SPIROMICS and its sister study SOURCE. Here is what that means for you as a valued study participant.
SPIROMICS Participants
In January 2025, a new phase of follow-up phone calls and an in-person clinic visit began for SPIROMICS participants. Participants can expect brief phone calls every four months. A single in-person visit will also be scheduled within the next couple of years. The in-person visit will involve similar activities, tests, and sample collection as your previous SPIROMICS visits. Please be on the lookout for phone calls from your local study team.
SOURCE Participants
In Fall 2024, the in-person follow-up visit for participants began, timed around three years from the date of enrollment into SOURCE. This visit includes similar activities, tests, and sample collection as your previous SOURCE visit.
Please be on the lookout for regular text message reminders and phone calls from your local study team. These calls help keep us in touch and schedule your in-person visit when due.
We look forward to catching up with you! We cannot do this without you!
The Science of Sputum
Sputum is mucus found in the lungs. We collect sputum from SPIROMICS and SOURCE participants. Your sputum sample can tell us a lot scientifically!
In SPIROMICS, six different measurements are studied from sputum. This information could help find better treatments for COPD. For example, researchers found that information from sputum may help predict the worsening of COPD symptoms.*
In SOURCE, sputum may help find indications or signs of early COPD.
Thank you for all the ways you contribute to science through your participation in SPIROMICS or SOURCE!
Celebrating 10 Years of Important Health Research Discoveries Published
Your participation led to significant findings about:
- Airways
- COPD Risk
- Disease Progression
- Exacerbations or Flare-ups
- Genes
- Lung Function
- Severe COPD
- Sleep
- Smoking
A Few Highlights
- We found that poor sleep was linked to more exacerbations or flare-ups. We shared this with doctors. They could help people get good sleep to reduce flare-ups. *
- Through filling out the COVID survey and completing dried blood spot collection, SPIROMICS participants helped discover important COVID-19 findings, like how long symptoms lasted. **
- SPIROMICS participants were part of a major study that looked at 1,020 signals of 559 genes for lung function. This helped us learn about COPD and how lungs work. This research may help lead to the development of new COPD treatments. ***
Acknowledgements
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: SPIROMICS is supported by NIH/NHLBI contracts (HHSN268200900013C, HHSN268200900014C, HHSN268200900015C, HHSN268200900016C, HHSN268200900017C, HHSN268200900018C, HHSN268200900019C, HHSN268200900020C, 75N92024D00012) and grants (U01 HL137880, U24 HL141762, R01 HL182622, R01 HL144718, and R01HL093081). SOURCE is supported by NIH/NHLBI grant (R01 HL144718). SPIROMICS and SOURCE are supplemented by contributions made through the Foundation for the NIH and the COPD Foundation from Amgen; AstraZeneca/MedImmune; Bayer; Bellerophon Therapeutics; Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Bristol Myers Squibb, Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A.; Forest Research Institute, Inc.; Genentech; GlaxoSmithKline; Grifols Therapeutics, Inc.; Ikaria, Inc.; MGC Diagnostics; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation; Nycomed GmbH; Polarean; ProterixBio; Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Sanofi; Sunovion; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company; Theravance Biopharma; Verona; and Mylan/Viatris. The newsletter was developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Collaborative Studies Coordinating Center, IRB #: 10-0048 and 20243711 (SPIROMICS II and III) and 20-2236 (SOURCE). Lung radiograph image from the CDC PHIL, #16381.