What is it about?
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma are the most frequent chronic respiratory diseases that affect the general population.
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Why is it important?
For a long period of time these two conditions were considered to be separate diseases. However, it became evident that some patients share symptoms and clinical findings from both diseases. These patients are considered to represent a distinct phenotype, called asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). However, since approximately the one third of the asthmatics smoke the ACOS may primarily define those patients. This is a relatively newly defined clinical syndrome whose underlying mechanisms and most appropriate management remain to be confirmed. In this review, we summarize current knowledge on this syndrome, aiming to update clinicians and help their daily practice.
Perspectives
ACOS represent a relatively new syndrome in the literature of pulmonary medicine and its definition, etiology, pathophysiology, management and treatment are not clear yet. Therefore, there are still very limited recommendations and guidelines. There is a critical need to better define the management of this syndrome that we believe it refers primarily to the smoking asthmatic. Large, well conducted trials are urgently required to inform the diagnosis and management of ACOS. Unfortunately, clinicians have to manage this syndrome empirically at present.
Professor Alexandru Corlateanu
State University of Medicine and Pharmacy "Nicolae Testemitanu"
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Ashtma-Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome (ACOS): current evidence and future research directions, COPD Research and Practice, May 2017, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1186/s40749-017-0025-x.
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