BACKGROUND Some patients share characteristics of both COPD and asthma. As yet, there is no gold standard to identify patients with the so-called asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). OBJECTIVE To describe the differences between ACOS patients and the remaining COPD patients, and to compare the clinical characteristics of patients diagnosed with ACOS by two different criteria: previous diagnos...

Background: Obstructive airway diseases such as asthma and COPD are defined a decreased capacity to get air through the conducting airways out of lungs.
 Objective: To study drug utilization pattern in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, determine irrationally (does not comply with prescription) usage, whether they were prescribed following standard treatment guidelines.
 Methodolo...

PURPOSE Comparisons of the characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) have been the focus of several studies since the diseases were defined by the Global Initiative for Asthma and Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease guidelines. However, no consensus is available yet. In this study, we aimed to compare the character...

OBJECTIVES To understand the key characteristics of Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Overlap Syndrome (ACOS) and to identify evidence gaps relating to the identification, treatment and management of ACOS patients. METHODS A structured literature review and 1-hour telephone interviews with specialist respiratory physicians were conducted (n=10; China, France, Germany, Japan and...

INTRODUCTION Cell count in induced sputum is a noninvasive biomarker to assess airway inflammation phenotypes. Accordingly, sputum cell counts are extensively used in the treatment of asthma and COPD. Nevertheless, the clinical application of sputum cell counts in patients with asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) remains elusive. The aim of this study was to investigate sputum cell counts in patients wit...

Background Emphysema is a distinct feature for classifying COPD, and smoking history (≥10 pack-years) is one of several newly proposed criteria for asthma-COPD overlap (ACO). We studied whether or not a smoking history (≥10 pack-years) and emphysema are useful markers for classifying ACO and differentiating it from asthma with chronic airflow obstruction (CAO). Methods We retrospectively stud...

Japan is an aging society, and the number of elderly patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is consequently increasing, with an estimated incidence of approximately 5 million. In 2014, asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS) was defined by a joint project of Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) committee and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (G...