ArticleERJ open research2018
COPD: time to improve its taxonomy?
Article in ERJ open research, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 47 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
47 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Osteoporosis in COPD patients: Risk factors and pulmonary rehabilitation.The clinical respiratory journal · 2022Pooled it
- Inhaled therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2020Pooled it
- A Brief History of COPD: As Told by Some of Its Senior Scientists and Clinicians.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- Small airways disease is common in mild COPD and symptomatic subjects at risk with normal spirometry: baseline data from CAPTO-COPD.ERJ open research · 2026Article
- New approaches to uncover COPD pathobiology and develop therapies.JCI insight · 2026Review
- Treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: current pipeline and new opportunities.Nature reviews. Drug discovery · 2026Review
- Longitudinal Outcomes and Prognostic Risk of Normalized Airflow Obstruction in a Korean General Population Cohort.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2026Article
- Chemoreflex function in pulmonary diseases - A review.The Journal of physiology · 2025Review
- Towards early detection and disease interception of COPD across the lifespan.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2025Review
- Lung Health of Early COPD (LHEC): A Multi-Center Cohort Study-Rational and Design.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2025Article
- A clinical-radiomics nomogram based on automated segmentation of chest CT to discriminate PRISm and COPD patients.European journal of radiology open · 2024Article
- Increase Attention to Computed Tomography Findings of Emphysema without Airflow Limitation: Small Airway Disease Is Already There.American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine · 2024Article
- Proportions and risk factors of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and preserved ratio impaired spirometry, and association with small airway disease, in the positive screening older population from China: a cross-sectional study.BMC pulmonary medicine · 2024Article
- Screening COPD-Related Biomarkers and Traditional Chinese Medicine Prediction Based on Bioinformatics and Machine Learning.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2024Article
- Exploring the associations between elevated plasma SP-D levels and OSCAR gene expression as potential biomarkers in patients with COPD: a cross-sectional study.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
- Regenerative and translational medicine in COPD: hype and hope.European respiratory review : an official journal of the European Respiratory Society · 2023Review
- Exploring Current Concepts and Challenges in the Identification and Management of Early-Stage COPD.Journal of clinical medicine · 2023Review
- Observational
- Twenty years of changes in the definition of early chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.Chinese medical journal pulmonary and critical care medicine · 2023Review
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Due to well-conducted epidemiological studies and advances in genetics, molecular biology, translational research, the advent of computed tomography of the lungs and bioinformatics, the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as a single entity caused by susceptibility to cigarette smoke is no longer tenable. Furthermore, the once-accepted concept that COPD results from a rapid and progressive loss of lung function over time is not true for a sizeable proportion of adults with the disease. Now we know that some genetic predisposition and/or different environmental interactions (nutritional, infectious, pollution and immunological) may negatively modulate post-natal lung development and lead to poorly reversible airflow limitation later in life, consistent with COPD. We believe it is time to rethink the taxonomy of this disease based on the evidence at hand. To do so, we have followed the principles outlined in the 1980s by J.D. Scadding who proposed that diseases can be defined by four key characteristics: 1) clinical description (syndrome), 2) disorder of structure (morbid anatomy), 3) disorder of function (pathophysiology) and 4) causation (aetiology). Here, we propose a pragmatic approach to the taxonomy of COPD based on different processes that result in a similar syndromic presentation. It can accommodate changes over time, as the pathobiology that may lead to COPD expands. We hope that stakeholders in the field may find it useful to better define the patients now boxed into one single entity, so that specific studies can be designed and conducted for each type of COPDs.
Identifiers
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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.