Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and COVID-19

Abstract

Recently, single studies have described the picture of COVID-19 in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Further study of this comorbid condition will help to assess the course and prognosis of each condition correctly, develop an effective plan for the management of patients with COPD during the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection.The aim. The article is an analytical review of the scientific literature from PubMed, Google Scholar, medRxiv, bioRxiv in order to study the clinical features of COVID-19 in patients with COPD. The published studies of the new coronavirus infection showed that patients with COPD account for 2% among those infected with SARS-CoV-2. However, further studies are needed to study the course of COVID-19 in patients with COPD. The conducted studies indicate a high level of ACE2 receptors to SARS-CoV-2 in current smokers and patients with COPD, which may explain the easier penetration of SARS-CoV-2 into the host organism and the severe course of the disease in this population.Conclusion. Although a number of clinical studies strongly suggest that men have more severe COVID-19 than women, the patient’s gender is not always taken into account. It is possible that the more severe course of COVID-19 is associated with the increased prevalence of smoking and COPD in men as compared to women to a lesser extent than with the high production of testosterone and X-linked inheritance of the androgen gene and the ACE2 gene.