Characteristic features and percentage of asthma chronic obstructive pulmonary disease overlap among patients with obstructive airway diseases

Background Asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (ACO) were considered two different diseases, but recently it was found that some patients have features of both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and they were defined as having ACO. Aim To study the characteristics features of ACO and its percentage among obstructive airway diseases and to assess sputum eosinophils in these patients. Patients and methods The study included 56 patient attending Kasr Al Aini outpatient clinic who were diagnosed as having obstructive airway diseases (asthma, COPD and ACO). Patients enrolled in the study were subjected to full history taking, clinical examination, full laboratory examination, plain chest radiography, spirometry before bronchodilator and after bronchodilator administration (reversibility test) and sputum analysis for counting eosinophils cells. Patients were classified into three groups (asthma, COPD and ACO). Results This study was conducted on 56 patients, including 47 (83.9%) males and nine (16.1%) females. Among the studied patients, 23 (41.1%) patients were diagnosed as ACO. The mean age of patients with ACO was 53.43±11 years. The age of onset of symptoms was below 40 years in 43.5% of patients with ACO and above 40 years in 56.5% of them. Eighty-seven percent of ACO group were smokers, 60.9% had history of atopy and 26.1% had sputum eosinophilia. Conclusion ACO represents a large percentage among patients with obstructive airway diseases. It shares some features of asthma such as atopy and positive sputum eosinophilia, and some features of COPD like old age of presentation and positive smoking history.