Edited by
Jonathan A. Bernstein
Louis-Philippe Boulet
Michael E. Wechsler

2018

Since Hippocrates first used the term “asthma” more than 2000 years ago to describe episodic bouts of dyspnea, to the modern day recognition of the natural history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) detailed in the seminal work of Fletcher and colleagues in 1976 (The Natural History of Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema, New York: Oxford University Press 1976), to the more recent debate about the definition and features of the asthma–COPD overlap, major progress has been made in gaining a better understanding of the characteristics and pathophysiology of obstructive airway diseases.