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Pathology of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases

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COPD

Abstract

In this modern age of in-depth molecular and genetic focus on diseases, it is pressing that we revisit the fundamental pathology underlying chronic pulmonary obstructive diseases—forgetting the past limits our ability to make the best from the present. This review seeks to integrate when possible what is known about the pathology of COPD with key pathogenetic data. However, to move the field forward, investigators dedicated to COPD are required to understand the normal and diseased lung structure (qualitatively and quantitatively), including on how best determine these key parameters; there was a time, approximately more than a half a decade ago, in which these were the most exciting and hopeful developments to understand COPD. They form the foundation to better appreciate the challenge to understand COPD and, most importantly, give proper credit to key studies that, in the past 50 years, shaped our current understanding of this highly challenging disease.

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Correspondence to Rubin M. Tuder M.D. .

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Tuder, R.M. (2017). Pathology of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases. In: Lee, SD. (eds) COPD. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47178-4_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-47178-4_3

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