Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with shorter telomere length have worse health status, according to a study published in the August issue of CHEST. Minhee Jin, from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and colleagues measured the absolute telomere length of DNA extracted from blood samples of 576 patients with moderate-to-severe COPD treated with azithromycin or placebo for 12 months. Participants were classified into two groups