The lung microbiota in COPD patients when clinically stable and during exacerbations.

Illumina MiSeq sequencing of the bacterial 16S rRNA amplicon in sputum samples taken longitudinally from COPD patients when clinically stable (free of antibiotic or corticosteroid therapy for 4 weeks), at start of exacerbation and at end of exacerbation (10 days post start of exacerbation after standardised treatment). Patients were followed up for up to 6 months with a second clinically stable sample obtained at end of study.