Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap syndrome

Abstract

Patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) make up a significant proportion of the GP workload. The overlap between the two can be described as the asthma COPD overlap syndrome (ACOS). This article describes the clinical and pathological features of ACOS, why it is important to identify and treat it differently and how this might change in the future.