Large airway wall vascularity in patients with asthma–COPD overlap: a bronchoscopy study

Asthma COPD overlap (ACO) is a clinical term that describes patients with persistent airflow limitation, and clinical/physiologic characteristics consistent with both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [1]. The hallmark pathological features of asthma and COPD are airway inflammation and remodelling. These have been considered as separate processes or perhaps as sequential, with early inflammation leading later to remodelling; however, a little is known about these parameters in ACO. We have recently reported increase in inflammatory cells such as macrophages and CD8+ T cells in the airway mucosa of patients with ACO [2]. Footnotes This manuscript has recently been accepted for publication in the ERJ Open Research . It is published here in its accepted form prior to copyediting and typesetting by our production team. After these production processes are complete and the authors have approved the resulting proofs, the article will move to the latest issue of the ERJOR online. Please open or download the PDF to view this article. Conflict of interest: None of the authors have any conflicts of interest to report. Conflict of interest: S.S. Sohal reports honorarium for lectures from Chiesi, travel support from Chiesi, AstraZeneca and GSK, and research grants from Boehringer Ingelheim and Lung Therapeutics, outside the submitted work; and has served on the small airway advisory board for Chiesi Australia for which an honorarium has been received, all disclosures made outside the submitted work. Conflict of interest: The remaining authors have nothing to disclose.