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Review
. 2022 Apr 28;12(5):708.
doi: 10.3390/jpm12050708.

Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome: Recent Insights and Unanswered Questions

Evangelia Fouka  1 , Andriana I Papaioannou  2 , Georgios Hillas  3 , Paschalis Steiropoulos  4
Affiliations
Review

Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome: Recent Insights and Unanswered Questions

Evangelia Fouka et al. J Pers Med. .

Abstract

The term asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) has been used to identify a heterogeneous condition in which patients present with airflow limitation that is not completely reversible and clinical and inflammatory features of both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). ACO diagnosis may be difficult in clinical practice, while controversy still exists regarding its definition, pathophysiology, and impact. Patients with ACO experience a greater disease burden compared to patients with asthma or COPD alone, but in contrast they show better response to inhaled corticosteroid treatment than other COPD phenotypes. Current management recommendations focus on defining specific and measurable treatable clinical traits, according to disease phenotypes and underlying biological mechanisms for every single patient. In this publication, we review the current knowledge on definition, pathophysiology, clinical characteristics, and management options of ACO.

Keywords: ACO; COPD; asthma; biomarkers; definition; genetics; pathophysiology; prognosis; treatable traits.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare no conflict of interest related to the above manuscript.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow-chart for diagnosing asthma-COPD overlap. ACO: asthma COPD overlap; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; FEV1: forced expiratory volume in one second; FVC: forced vital capacity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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