The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology
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J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. · Dec 2016
Airway hyperresponsiveness in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: A marker of asthma-chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome?
The impact of airway hyperreactivity (AHR) on respiratory mortality and systemic inflammation among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is largely unknown. We used data from 2 large studies to determine the relationship between AHR and FEV1 decline, respiratory mortality, and systemic inflammation. ⋯ AHR is common in patients with mild-to-moderate COPD, affecting 1 in 4 patients and identifies a distinct subset of patients who have increased risk of disease progression and mortality. AHR may represent a spectrum of the asthma-COPD overlap phenotype that urgently requires disease modification.