title: Underrecognized comorbidities of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
abstract: COPD is associated with different comorbid diseases, and their frequency increases with age. Comorbidities severely impact costs of health care, intensity of symptoms, quality of life and, most importantly, may contribute to life span shortening. Some comorbidities are well acknowledged and established in doctors' awareness. However, both everyday practice and literature searches provide evidence of other, less recognized diseases, which are frequently associated with COPD. We call them underrecognized comorbidities, and the reason why this is so may be related to their relatively low clinical significance, inefficient literature data, or data ambiguity. In this review, we describe rhinosinusitis, skin abnormalities, eye diseases, different endocrinological disorders, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. Possible links to COPD pathogenesis have been discussed, if the data were available.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pneumology and Allergy, 1st Chair of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland ; Healthy Aging Research Centre (HARC), Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miłkowska-Dymanowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Pneumology and Allergy, 1st Chair of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland ; Healthy Aging Research Centre (HARC), Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: Adam J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Białas
authors.affiliation: Unit of Psychodermatology, Chair of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zalewska-Janowska
authors.affiliation: Department of Pneumology and Allergy, 1st Chair of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland ; Healthy Aging Research Centre (HARC), Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: Paweł
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Górski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pneumology and Allergy, 1st Chair of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland ; Healthy Aging Research Centre (HARC), Medical University of Lodz, Łódź, Poland.
authors.forename: Wojciech J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Piotrowski
mesh_terms: D015897:Comorbidity; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D029424:Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors
keywords: COPD; GERD; comorbidities; endocrinological disorders; rhinosinusitis