Summer Clinical Practice Test

The medication that best helps control COPD symptoms and improve airflow is an inhaled bronchodilator that blocks muscarinic receptors in the airways. Ipratropium bromide does this by inhibiting acetylcholine’s action on the smooth muscle of the bronchi, reducing bronchoconstriction and widening the airways. This leads to easier breathing and symptom relief in COPD.

The other options don’t primarily expand airflow: acetylcysteine is a mucolytic that thins mucus; dornase alfa helps break down DNA in mucus and is used in cystic fibrosis; cromolyn sodium stabilizes mast cells to prevent mediator release but is not a main COPD bronchodilator.