Copyright
©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Respirol. Jul 28, 2016; 6(2): 54-56
Published online Jul 28, 2016. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v6.i2.54
Published online Jul 28, 2016. doi: 10.5320/wjr.v6.i2.54
Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome: A diagnostic puzzle for the clinicians
Ourania Koltsida, Antonia Koutsoukou, Nikolaos G Koulouris, Nikoletta Rovina, 1st Department of Respiratory Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, “Sotiria” Hospital for Chest Diseases, 11527 Athens, Greece
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Nikoletta Rovina, MD, PhD, 1st Department of Respiratory Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School, “Sotiria” Hospital for Chest Diseases, 152 Mesogeion Ave, 11527 Athens, Greece. nikrovina@med.uoa.gr
Telephone: +30-210-7763650
Received: March 3, 2016
Peer-review started: March 4, 2016
First decision: April 15, 2016
Revised: April 27, 2016
Accepted: May 17, 2016
Published online: July 28, 2016
Processing time: 137 Days and 9.5 Hours
Peer-review started: March 4, 2016
First decision: April 15, 2016
Revised: April 27, 2016
Accepted: May 17, 2016
Published online: July 28, 2016
Processing time: 137 Days and 9.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: Asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome (ACOS) represents a diagnostic challenge in the clinical practice, since there is lack of specific indicators to distinguish it from asthma or COPD, and moreover, genetic risk factors, underlying pathology and molecular pathways, clinical characteristics, therapeutic interventions, response to treatment and prognosis are poorly described. Combination therapy with ICS/LABA or LAMA, or newly developed specific anti-eosinophil therapies and treatments specifically targeting neutrophils might be of relevance in the management of ACOS. More studies are needed in order to clarify the underlying mechanisms, the clinical aspects and the prognosis of ACOS.