Both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have inflammatory characteristics and a reduced rate of pulmonary airflow. In adults, differentiating asthma from COPD can be difficult. However, it is important to differentiate these two conditions since the treatment, disease progression, and outcomes are very different.
Currently, clinical COPD is often misdiagnosed or undiagnosed until late in the disease. By answering the following questions, we can calculate the likelihood a case is COPD or asthma.