PG14 From phenotypes to endotypes of asthma and COPD
Postgraduate CourseChairs: G. Joos (Ghent, Belgium), B. Lundback (Gothenburg, Sweden)
Aims: This course will give an overview of the journey from phenotypes to endotypes of asthma and COPD. Asthma and COPD are not single disease entities. Both asthma and COPD, particularly COPD, include different clinical phenotypes with different risk factor patterns and clinical presentations, and have large variations in prognosis. However, phenotypes do not express or explain the different underlying patho-physiological and pathogenetic mechanisms of the disease or phenotypes of disease. Thus, the term endotype has been introduced in order to explain both the clinical expressions of the disease phenotypes and their underlying mechanisms. Partly as a result of ongoing discussions on phenotypes and endotypes, there is also an ongoing debate about the need to revise the taxonomy of obstructive airway diseases.
HERMES module links: ADULT - B.1 Airway diseases, B.6 Occupational and environmental diseases.