ABSTRACT
The number of people affected by obstructive lung diseases worldwide represents a significant global health problem. The appropriate management of these patients is essential to reducing symptom burden and, as a corollary, maintaining and, when possible, improving, lung function. However, the treatments available for obstructive lung disease management are numerous and cover the spectrum from highly familiar inhalants to newer biologic agents. Further complicating the matter, the two primary obstructive lung diseases—asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD)—are not treated identically. There are important differences in the recommended therapeutic algorithms for these diseases. Patients affected by asthma and COPD present with similar complaints related to lung function deterioration and airflow obstruction. Many of the therapies available have been approved and utilized for both conditions. However, the approach is fundamentally not the same for several critical reasons. Physicians treating patients with asthma and COPD must be capable of differentiating diseases with similar presentations and determining the most appropriate approach to pharmacologic therapy. The simultaneous difficulty and significance of this differentiation should not be understated. Using tables, summaries of best practices, and clinical vignettes, we will highlight the key differentiating points between the management of asthma and COPD, as well as discuss the overlap syndrome between the two that is increasingly being recognized as a related but distinct clinical entity. The goal of this chapter is to provide physicians with a useful tool to help them deliver high-quality care that is tailored to the correct patient population of those burdened by obstructive lung disease.
