Present and future utility of CT phenotypes in the assessment and management of COPD

Abstract

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is currently defined on the basis of spirometric evidence of airway obstruction in the setting of well-recognised risk factors. The Global Initiative for Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) system has been widely used to identify and classify the severity and risk predisposition of individual patients with COPD. However, individuals with identical GOLD stages have different morphologic appearances at computed tomography (CT) which may reflect important differences in the underlying pathophysiology and genomic profile of COPD.