Diagnosis, Pathogenesis and Treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on emerging trends in the diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a persistent disease of the airways that causes respiratory symptoms and systemic involvement. Often, a gradual worsening of symptoms occurs as time advances. Furthermore, certain phenotypes of patients experience exacerbations that might include the need for hospitalization or emergency room visits. Although progress has been demonstrated in its treatment, there is still room for substantial improvement regarding a wide range of topics within COPD. When it comes to diagnosing COPD, there is an urgent need for new ideas that can lead to early diagnosis as many patients are only diagnosed late in the course of the disease—at age 60+, when lung function is halved. Disease monitoring is fundamental in the management of chronic diseases. In a broad variety of diseases e.g., diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia, biomarkers are used for monitoring. However, relevant biomarkers or other ways of measuring disease status are lacking for COPD. Biological treatment, as well as other options, have in recent years been implemented as the standard treatment for various chronic inflammatory diseases (ex. asthma, inflammatory bowel and rheumatic diseases). Unfortunately, new treatment options for COPD have not been introduced for more than a decade. Therefore, the discovery and introduction of new mechanisms with the potential to develop therapeutic strategies is needed, as are diagnostic, prognostic and predictive biomarkers. This Special Issue invites the submission of research in any area relating to these themes. Possible topics within this scope include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Identification of novel biomarkers
• Phenotyping
• Treatment
• Prognosis
• Disease monitoring
• Early diagnosing
• Molecular mechanisms
• Strategies to improve management
• Evaluation of new biomarkers with predictive value

Dr. Anders Løkke
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• COPD
• diagnosing
• disease monitoring
• treatment options