Abstract
ACO may have different risk factors and clinical course compared to asthma or COPD alone. As part of the ALEC study (EU Horizon 2020 Grant #633212) we aim at describing the characteristics of subjects aged 40–68 with and without asthma and COPD, from early adulthood to middle age.
We analysed data collected in 1991-94, 1998-2002 and 2011-13 in the ECRHS study. At the last time point we classified subjects as having current (n=808) or past (n=263) asthma alone, COPD alone (n=112), ACO (n=178), or none of them (n=3477). ACO was defined as a combination of COPD (post-bronchodilator FEV1/FVC <LLN with key indicators of disease according to the GOLD guidelines) with a history of asthma.
The subjects with ACO were less likely to have smoked >15 pack-years (41 vs 70%, poverall<0.001) and to report occupational exposures (41 vs 52%, poverall=0.05) than those with COPD alone, but they reported childhood respiratory infections more frequently (18 vs 13%, poverall<0.001). Compared with the subjects with current asthma alone, they were more likely to have a history of airway hyperresponsiveness (95 vs 78%, poverall<0.001) or a history of serum total IgE >100 kU/L (68 vs 56%, poverall<0.001). The subjects with ACO had the lowest FEV1 in their twenties, but the fastest FEV1 decline was seen among people with COPD alone (Figure 1).
In the general population ACO is a severe respiratory phenotype characterised by an impaired lung function in young adulthood.
Footnotes
Cite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2019; 54: Suppl. 63, OA1939.
This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).
- Copyright ©the authors 2019