LEIDEN, Netherlands, Sept. 14 - The first complete overhaul of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) guidelines eliminated a staging category and made recommendations for antibiotic use during exacerbations.

The updated Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines also now call COPD "preventable and treatable," which Klaus F. Rabe, M.D., Ph.D., of the Leiden University Medical Center here, called one of the most important aspects of the revision.

Dr. Rabe and colleagues published the update in the second September issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The definition of COPD was changed to include the phrase "a preventable and treatable disease with some significant extrapulmonary effects."