Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a global health problem, and since 2001, the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) has published its strategy document for the diagnosis and management of COPD. This executive summary presents the main contents of the second 5-year revision of the GOLD document that has implemented some of the vast knowledge about COPD accumulated over the last years. Today, GOLD recommends that spirometry is required for the clinical diagnosis of COPD to avoid misdiagnosis and to ensure proper evaluation of severity of airflow limitation. The document highlights that the assessment of the patient with COPD should always include assessment of (1) symptoms, (2) severity of airflow limitation, (3) history of exacerbations, and (4) comorbidities. The first three points can be used to evaluate level of symptoms and risk of future exacerbations, and this is done in a way that splits patients with COPD into four categories—A, B, C, and D. Nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic management of COPD match this assessment in an evidence-based attempt to relieve symptoms and reduce risk of exacerbations. Identification and treatment of comorbidities must have high priority, and a separate section in the document addresses management of comorbidities as well as COPD in the presence of comorbidities. The revised document also contains a new section on exacerbations of COPD. The GOLD initiative will continue to bring COPD to the attention of all relevant shareholders and will hopefully inspire future national and local guidelines on the management of COPD.

Long-acting beta-agonists and inhaled corticosteroids are used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), but their effect on survival is unknown.

Although we know that exacerbations are key events in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), our understanding of their frequency, determinants, and effects is incomplete. In a large observational cohort, we tested the hypothesis that there is a frequent-exacerbation phenotype of COPD that is independent of disease severity.

Precision medicine is a patient-specific approach that integrates all relevant clinical, genetic and biological information in order to optimise the therapeutic benefit relative to the possibility of side-effects for each individual. Recent clinical trials have shown that higher blood eosinophil counts are associated with a greater efficacy of inhaled corticosteroids (ICSs) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Blood eosinophil counts are a biomarker with potential to be used in clinical practice, to help target ICS treatment with more precision in COPD patients with a history of exacerbations despite appropriate bronchodilator treatment.The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) 2017 pharmacological treatment algorithms, based on the ABCD assessment, can be applied relatively easily to treatment-naive individuals at initial presentation. However, their use is more problematic during follow-up in patients who are already on maintenance treatment. There is a need for a different system to guide COPD pharmacological management during follow-up.Recent large randomised controlled trials have provided important new information concerning the therapeutic effects of ICSs and long-acting bronchodilators on exacerbations. The new evidence regarding blood eosinophils and inhaled treatments, and the need to distinguish between initial and follow-up pharmacological management, led to changes in the GOLD pharmacological treatment recommendations. This article explains the evidence and rationale for the GOLD 2019 pharmacological treatment recommendations.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is thought to result from an accelerated decline in forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV₁) over time. Yet it is possible that a normal decline in FEV₁ could also lead to COPD in persons whose maximally attained FEV₁ is less than population norms. We stratified participants in three independent cohorts (the Framingham Offspring Cohort, the Copenhagen City Heart Study, and the Lovelace Smokers Cohort) according to lung function (FEV₁ ≥80% or <80% of the predicted value) at cohort inception (mean age of patients, approximately 40 years) and the presence or absence of COPD at the last study visit. We then determined the rate of decline in FEV₁ over time among the participants according to their FEV₁ at cohort inception and COPD status at study end. Among 657 persons who had an FEV₁ of less than 80% of the predicted value before 40 years of age, 174 (26%) had COPD after 22 years of observation, whereas among 2207 persons who had a baseline FEV₁ of at least 80% of the predicted value before 40 years of age, 158 (7%) had COPD after 22 years of observation (P<0.001). Approximately half the 332 persons with COPD at the end of the observation period had had a normal FEV₁ before 40 years of age and had a rapid decline in FEV₁ thereafter, with a mean (±SD) decline of 53±21 ml per year. The remaining half had had a low FEV₁ in early adulthood and a subsequent mean decline in FEV₁ of 27±18 ml per year (P<0.001), despite similar smoking exposure. Our study suggests that low FEV₁ in early adulthood is important in the genesis of COPD and that accelerated decline in FEV₁ is not an obligate feature of COPD. (Funded by an unrestricted grant from GlaxoSmithKline and others.)

Although the prevalence of asthma and morbidity related to asthma are increasing, little is known about the natural history of lung function in adults with this disease.