ABSTRACT
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a well know mimic of bronchial asthma, in adults and in practice, it is not uncommon to encounter misdiagnosis in both cases. There are of course similarities between asthma and COPD. Both are chronic diseases with varying degrees of airway inflammation and obstruction. The ‘Dutch hypothesis’ suggested that both asthma and COPD have common genetic origins with environmental factors playing a role in pathogenesis and clinical manifestation. Symptoms of asthma and COPD overlap since the airways have a limited range of responses to inflammation irrespective of the cause of the insult. One of the goals of treatment in asthma is to minimize persistent airflow limitation. In COPD, normalization of pulmonary function is not possible and the goal is adequate symptom control. Exacerbations of asthma and COPD are important adverse events in the natural history of the disease, which adversely affects the health status.
