Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease — master index¶
Last curated: 2026-09-02 · status: audited
The condition in five sentences. COPD is a heterogeneous lung condition characterized by persistent respiratory symptoms and airflow obstruction from airway and/or alveolar abnormalities, confirmed by post-bronchodilator spirometry (Christenson 2022, PMID 35533707). Modeling estimated 391.9 million people aged 30–79 had COPD in 2019, with tobacco, household/ambient pollution and occupational exposures producing major regional differences (Adeloye 2022, PMID 35279265). Small-airway disease, emphysema, mucus, inflammation, vascular change and systemic comorbidity combine differently across individuals, including many never-smokers (Yang 2022, PMID 35427530). Smoking cessation, vaccination, inhaled bronchodilators, pulmonary rehabilitation and exacerbation prevention anchor care; inhaled corticosteroids benefit selected exacerbation-prone/eosinophilic patients but increase pneumonia risk (McCarthy 2015, PMID 25705944; Lipson 2018, PMID 29668352; Zhang 2020, PMID 32643439). The frontier is earlier detection and phenotype-specific therapy, illustrated by dupilumab benefit in eosinophilic COPD, while access to spirometry and rehabilitation remains a larger global constraint (Bhatt 2023, PMID 37272521; Ho 2019, PMID 30838057).
Start here: overview.md. Frontier: OPEN-QUESTIONS.md. Growth history: LOG.md.
Pages¶
| File | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| overview.md | Definition, burden, heterogeneity and treatment map | curated |
| diagnosis-spirometry-and-case-finding.md | Persistent obstruction, testing quality, under/overdiagnosis and mimics | curated |
| epidemiology-and-global-burden.md | Prevalence, mortality, exposures, inequalities and trends | curated |
| small-airway-disease-and-emphysema.md | Airway remodeling, parenchymal destruction and gas exchange | curated |
| inflammation-and-endotypes.md | Neutrophilic, eosinophilic/type-2, infectious and systemic biology | curated |
| genetics-and-alpha-1-antitrypsin.md | SERPINA1, COPDGene, genetic susceptibility and testing | curated |
| smoking-pollution-and-occupational-risk.md | Tobacco, biomass, ambient pollution and work exposures | curated |
| stable-inhaled-therapy.md | LABA/LAMA/ICS, inhaler selection and de-escalation | curated |
| exacerbations-and-acute-care.md | Definitions, triggers, antibiotics, steroids, NIV and recovery | curated |
| pulmonary-rehabilitation-and-self-management.md | Exercise, education, nutrition and action plans | curated |
| oxygen-and-ventilatory-support.md | LTOT, moderate desaturation, home NIV and palliative support | curated |
| emphysema-procedures-and-transplant.md | Valves, volume reduction, bullectomy and transplant | curated |
| comorbidity-and-systemic-effects.md | Cardiovascular, muscle, bone, mood, cancer and multimorbidity | curated |
| guidelines.md | GOLD and regional recommendations and disagreements | curated |
| biomarkers-and-imaging-phenotypes.md | Eosinophils, CT, MRI, physiology and treatable traits | curated |
| clinical-trials-landscape.md | Inhaled drugs, biologics, regeneration and device trials | curated |
| patient-experience-and-advocacy.md | Breathlessness, stigma, work, oxygen and access | curated |
| red-flags-and-safety-concerns.md | Acute respiratory failure, pneumothorax, hemoptysis and oxygen/medication safety | curated |
Literature layer¶
| Artifact | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| BIBLIOGRAPHY.md | Topic-grouped master bibliography | curated |
| notes/ | Five landmark-paper notes | audited |
| guidelines/REGISTRY.md | Global guideline catalogue and disagreements | curated |
| statistics/STATISTICS.md | Sourced quantitative quick reference | curated |
| patient-voice/ | Ethical public-source experience layer | audited |
Curation state¶
This condition was independently re-audited on 2026-09-02 (auditor: Claude; author of the preceding widening pass: codex). All 18 canonical pages are curated.
Citation breadth, measured on citations that actually appear in page prose. Each page's ## References list now mirrors its body citations exactly. The wiki cites 295 distinct PubMed records — 16.4 per canonical page, with 18–44 records per individual page (mean 25.6) across 163–199 lines. Before the audit, the pages carried 302 records in their files but only 288 in body prose (16.0 per page): 127 reference-list entries named papers the page never cited, 110 of them papers already carried by other pages. Those entries were removed; the records remain in BIBLIOGRAPHY.md. The audit added 7 records while replacing stale absence statements with positively-stated evidence.
All 313 PMIDs and all 38 NCT identifiers appearing anywhere under the condition were re-resolved live during the audit; none failed.