title: [Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and pneumonia].
abstract: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic disease causing increasing healthcare costs worldwide. Another respiratory disease causing high costs and morbidity is community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Because of the constant growth in the population with both diseases (CAP and COPD), analyzing their clinical characteristics is important. Several cellular factors are known to contribute to differences in clinical expression: some lead to COPD exacerbations while others lead to symptoms of pneumonia. The use of new biomarkers (procalcitonin, pro-adrenomedullin and copeptin) help to distinguish among these clinical pictures. To decrease morbidity and mortality, clinical guidelines on antibiotic therapy must be followed and this therapy should be prescribed to patients with CAP and COPD. There are also prevention measures such as the pneumococcal vaccine whose role in the prevention of pneumococcal CAP should be further studied. The present review aims to elucidate some of the above-mentioned issues.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Neumología, Institut Clínic del Tòrax, Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS, CIBER de Respiratorio 06/06/0028, Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, España. ahuerta@clinic.ub.es
authors.forename: Arturo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huerta
authors.forename: Rebeca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Domingo
authors.forename: Néstor
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Soler
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D011014:Pneumonia / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D012307:Risk Factors