Challenges in Differentiating Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease for Treatment: A Simplified Algorithm Based on Spirometry and Blood Eosinophil

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Treatment of both chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma now shifted from conventional to personalized therapy and a one-size-fits-all approach is ineffective in all cases.Treatment of both chronic obstructive disease treatment is driven by the history of symptoms, exacerbation, and blood eosinophil level, while asthma is by symptoms, airflow limitation, and blood or sputum eosinophil level.Although understanding of asthma and COPD has been deeper and deeper in the last few years, the treatment seems to be still complicated.Treatment of both diseases seems to be interrelated and overlapping and there is an unmet need for a simplified approach.Bronchial asthma patients may have fixed airflow obstruction (FAO), may have neutrophilic inflammation, may have inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) resistance, similarly, COPD patients may have reversible airflow limitation, eosinophilic inflammation, and ICS responsiveness.Treatment of both diseases depends upon the severity of symptoms, FAO, and blood eosinophil level.I am putting here a simplified approach to the treatment of asthma and COPD based on blood eosinophils and spirometry which would be a great help to clinicians in deciding the treatment.