What pulmonologists think about the asthma-COPD overlap syndrome

Background: Some patients with COPD may share characteristics of asthma; this is the so-called asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). There are no universally accepted criteria for ACOS, and most treatments for asthma and COPD have not been adequately tested in this population. Materials and methods:...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease 2015, Vol.10, p.1321
Main Authors: Miravitlles, Marc, Alcazar, Bernardino, Alvarez, Francisco Javier, Bazus, Teresa, Calle, Myriam, Casanova, Ciro, Cisneros, Carolina, de-Torres, Juan P, Entrenas, Luis M, Esteban, Cristobal, Garcia-Sidro, Patricia, Cosio, Borja G, Huerta, Arturo, Iriberri, Milagros, Izquierdo, Jose Luis, Lopez-Vina, Antolrn, Lopez-Campos, Jose Luis, MartrnezMoragon, Eva, de Llano, Luis Perez, Perpina, Miguel, Ros, Jose Antonio, Serrano, Jose, Soler-Cataluna, Juan Jose, Torrego, Alfons, Urrutia, Isabel, Plaza, Vicente
Format: Report
Language:English
Subjects:
Asthma
Care and treatment
Chronic obstructive lung disease
Evaluation
Practice guidelines (Medicine)
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Summary:Background: Some patients with COPD may share characteristics of asthma; this is the so-called asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). There are no universally accepted criteria for ACOS, and most treatments for asthma and COPD have not been adequately tested in this population. Materials and methods: We performed a survey among pulmonology specialists in asthma and COPD aimed at collecting their opinions about ACOS and their attitudes in regard to some case scenarios of ACOS patients. The participants answered a structured questionnaire and attended a face-to-face meeting with the Metaplan methodology to discuss different aspects of ACOS. Results: A total of 26 pulmonologists with a mean age of 49.7 years participated in the survey (13 specialists in asthma and 13 in COPD). Among these, 84.6% recognized the existence of ACOS and stated that a mean of 12.6% of their patients might have this syndrome. In addition, 80.8% agreed that the diagnostic criteria for ACOS are not yet well defined. The most frequently mentioned characteristics of ACOS were a history of asthma (88.5%), significant smoking exposure (73.1%), and postbronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity
ISSN:1178-2005
DOI:10.2147/COPD.S88667