Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2014 Mar;6 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S146-51.
doi: 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2014.03.04.

Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome (ACOS): current literature review

Antonis Papaiwannou  1 , Paul Zarogoulidis  1 , Konstantinos Porpodis  1 , Dionysios Spyratos  1 , Ioannis Kioumis  1 , Georgia Pitsiou  1 , Athanasia Pataka  1 , Kosmas Tsakiridis  1 , Stamatis Arikas  1 , Andreas Mpakas  1 , Theodora Tsiouda  1 , Nikolaos Katsikogiannis  1 , Ioanna Kougioumtzi  1 , Nikolaos Machairiotis  1 , Stavros Siminelakis  1 , Alexander Kolettas  1 , George Kessis  1 , Thomas Beleveslis  1 , Konstantinos Zarogoulidis  1
Affiliations
Review

Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome (ACOS): current literature review

Antonis Papaiwannou et al. J Thorac Dis. 2014 Mar.

Abstract

Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are chronic diseases, very common in general population. These obstructive airway illnesses are manifested with chronic inflammation affecting the whole respiratory tract. Obstruction is usually intermittent and reversible in asthma, but is progressive and irreversible in COPD. Asthma and COPD may overlap and converge, especially in older people [overlap syndrome-asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome (ACOS)]. Although ACOS accounts approximately 15-25% of the obstructive airway diseases, is not well recognised because of the structure of clinical trials. COPD studies exclude asthma patients and asthma studies exclude COPD patients, respectively. It is crucial to define asthma, COPD and overlap syndrome (ACOS), as notable clinical entities, which they share common pathologic and functional features, but they are characterized from differences in lung function, acute exacerbations, quality of life, hospital impact and mortality.

Keywords: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); asthma; overlap.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Asthma and COPD connection.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Thoracic Society Standards for diagnosis and care of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1995;152:S77-121 - PubMed
    1. Soriano JB, Davis KJ, Coleman B, et al. The proportional Venn diagram of obstructive lung disease: two approximations from the United States and the United Kingdom. Chest 2003;124:474-81 - PubMed
    1. Miravitlles M, Soler-Cataluña JJ, Calle M, et al. Spanish COPD Guidelines (GesEPOC): pharmacological treatment of stable COPD. Aten Primaria 2012;44:425-37 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Soler-Cataluña JJ, Cosío B, Izquierdo JL, et al. Consensus document on the overlap phenotype COPD-asthma in COPD. Arch Bronconeumol 2012;48:331-7 - PubMed
    1. Hogg JC, Chu F, Utokaparch S, et al. The nature of small-airway obstruction in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. N Engl J Med 2004;350:2645-53 - PubMed