Search results for " acute exacerbations"

The asthma-COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS): hype or reality? That is, a curiosity for the media or an opportunity for physicians?

2014

Asthma-COPD Overlap Syndrome (ACOS) has been recently defined as a new pathological entity. Most studies support a large difference in the pathophysiology of bronchial asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, there is evidence of an increasing prevalence of patients in whom the two diseases coexist or in which one condition evolves into the other, leading to the pathological condition named ACOS. This occurs mainly in individuals with long-standing asthma, especially if also current or former-smokers. Indeed, epidemiological studies show that aging is one of the main risk factors for ACOS, creating the basis for the two entities to converge on the same subject. It i…