Trial reportThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2012
Difficulties in differential diagnosis of COPD and asthma in primary care.
Trial report in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 96 citations in OpenAlex.
- Point of care microspirometry to facilitate the COPD diagnostic process in primary care: a clustered randomised trial.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2018Trial
- Use of Asthma APGAR Tools in Primary Care Practices: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.Annals of family medicine · 2018Trial
- Perinatal Risk Factors, Allergic Conditions and Psychosocial Problems in Children and Adolescents with Mental Health Problems.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2026Article
- Low-Effort Respiratory Function Estimation with a Soft Wearable Digital Spirometry Patch.Biosensors · 2026Article
- Validation of a survey questionnaire for screening of obstructive airway disease by primary care physicians.Lung India : official organ of Indian Chest Society · 2026Article
- CAD-Q (COPD-Asthma Differentiation Questionnaire): Performance of a new diagnostic score to differentiate between COPD and asthma in adults.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2025Article
- A Bibliometric Analysis of Pulmonary Function Testing in Differentiating Asthma From COPD: Trends, Impact, and Emerging Research Areas.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Review
- Integrating asthma care guidelines into primary care electronic medical records: a review focused on Canadian knowledge translation tools.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2024Review
- Article
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Overdiagnosis and Overtreatment: A Meta-Analysis.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Integrating User Preferences for Asthma Tools and Clinical Guidelines Into Primary Care Electronic Medical Records: Mixed Methods Study.JMIR formative research · 2023Article
- Primary care asthma surveillance: a review of knowledge translation tools and strategies for quality improvement.Allergy, asthma, and clinical immunology : official journal of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology · 2023Review
- Identification of autoantigens and their potential post-translational modification in EGPA and severe eosinophilic asthma.Frontiers in immunology · 2023Article
- LABA/LAMA as First-Line Therapy for COPD: A Summary of the Evidence and Guideline Recommendations.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- Artificial intelligence to differentiate asthma from COPD in medico-administrative databases.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2022Article
- Diagnostic differentiation between asthma and COPD in primary care using lung function testing.NPJ primary care respiratory medicine · 2022Article
- Characterisation of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease initiating single-device inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting βBMJ open respiratory research · 2022Article
- Functional Predictors Discriminating Asthma-COPD Overlap (ACO) from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2022Article
- Trends in Medicaid spending on inhalers in the United States, 2012-2018.Journal of managed care & specialty pharmacy · 2021Article
- GOLD 2021 Strategy Report: Implications for Asthma-COPD Overlap.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma treatment must be based on appropriate diagnosis. However, patients receiving inhaled therapy in primary care may not be accurately diagnosed according to current guidelines.
aimTo analyse the characteristics of patients treated with inhaled medication, the concordance of tools for differential diagnosis, and the adequacy of prescription of inhaled corticosteroids (ICs) in primary care. DESIGN AND
settingCross-sectional, multicentre, non-interventional study conducted in 10 primary care centres in Barcelona, Spain.
methodPatients with chronic respiratory disease, aged >40 years were treated with ICs. They provided sociodemographic and clinical information and performed forced spirometry with a bronchodilator test (BDT). The diagnostic accuracy of asthma and COPD diagnoses were tested using two differential diagnosis questionnaires.
resultsA total of 328 patients were initially classified as having COPD (64.8%), asthma (15.4%), or indeterminate (19.8%) by their GPs. After spirometry, 40% of patients had moderate-severe airflow obstruction according to the GOLD classification; mean reversibility of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) was 8.4%; 18.6% had a positive BDT; and 39.8% had post-bronchodilator FEV1/forced vital capacity >0.7. Concordance of the differential diagnosis tools was moderate (clinical diagnosis versus spirometry and between the two questionnaires), low (clinical diagnosis versus questionnaires), and very low (spirometry versus differential diagnosis). Of the patients diagnosed with COPD, 71.4% were treated with ICs, and 12% of those classified as having asthma were not receiving ICs.
conclusionMost patients can be classified as having COPD or asthma by primary care physicians. The use of the two questionnaires did not provide a better differential diagnostic compared with symptoms and spirometry with a BDT. Misdiagnosis may lead to inadequate treatment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.