Clinical Research Directory

Inclusion Criteria: * Adult patients admitted to a participating hospital (ward, ICU or emergency services) for an acute COPD exacerbation * For patients with known COPD: COPD defined according to GOLD 2018 criteria: (1) Post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC \< 70% of predicted values; (2) \> 10 pack years smoking history * For incident COPD cases with no spirometric history: symptoms and exposure according to GOLD 2018 report will be considered for the diagnosis, but if the spirometric diagnosis is not confirmed during follow-up, then the patient will be excluded * Signed consent has been obtained, or the appropriate emergency procedure (under French law) allows enrolment * Subjects must be covered by public health insurance * Patient available for 3 months of follow-up. Subjects must be able to attend all scheduled visits and to comply with all trial procedures. Exclusion Criteria: * Subject unable to read or write; language barrier * Subject who is in a dependency or employment with the sponsor or investigator * Pregnancy or lactation * Patients who are prisoners or under other forms of judicial protection * Patients under any kind of guardianship * The patient has already participated in the present protocol * The patient is participating in another interventional study or has done so in the past 3 months * The patient is in an exclusion period determined by a previous study * The patient has been taking long-term systemic corticosteroids for longer than 1 month prior to inclusion * The patient has already received \> 1 mg/kg of systemic corticotherapy in the past 48h * Intubated-ventilated patient * Administration of oral experimental drug is impossible * Cancer within the last 12 months * Current diagnosis of Asthma * T2-inflammation targeting biologics (Benralizumab, reslizumab, mepolizumab, dupilumab) treatment * Admitted for any other reason including, but not limited to, pulmonary embolism, pneumothorax, heart failure * Known allergy to corticosteroids * Consideration of a potential negative drug interaction with corticosteroids (at the investigator's discretion) * White blood cell formula already performed and distributed to implicated teams * Directives for limitation-of-care ("LATA" in French) already established * SARS-Cov2 positive test carry out during the COPD exacerbation