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Open research questions in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research

104 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 789 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • Some limitations of this study should be acknowledged. It focused on healthy young adults, a population in which the relationship between 1 3European Journal of Applied Physiology pulmonary function and HGS remains underexplored com- pared with older or clinical populations. Future studies with larger, more bal- anced samples are warranted and should consider using the second handle as the standard testing position, as well as additional measures of respiratory muscle strength, such as negative inspiratory force or maximal inspiratory pressure, to better clarify the relationship between peripheral muscle strength and respiratory muscle function.

    The relationship between pulmonary function, and hand grip strength among young adults: a cross-sectional study · 2026 · DOI

  • Background Asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and bronchiectasis frequently coexist, but the cardiovascular implications of their overlap phenotypes have not been systematically quantified in large prospective cohorts.

    Overlapping airway diseases and risk of major adverse cardiovascular events: a UK biobank prospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • Adjunctive mind-body interventions, including hypnosis, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and mindfulness-based interventions, have been studied as augmentations to pulmonary rehabilitation, but prior evidence is limited by waitlist or treatment-as-usual comparators that conflate intervention-specific effects with non-specific benefits of structured psychological contact.

    Medical hypnosis versus structured relaxation as adjunct to pulmonary rehabilitation for anxiety in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (HYPNOBPCO_2): a cluster-randomised, active-comparator trial · 2026 · DOI

  • Importantly, di- rect evidence specifically linking arterial hypertension to enhanced pCO₂ reduction, particularly with CPAP, remains scarce in the literature, thereby highlighting the novelty of our findings [16,17].

    The Impact of Comorbidities on the Effectiveness of Noninvasive Ventilation in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease · 2026 · DOI

  • Future multicenter prospective studies with larger patient populations are warranted to validate these results and to further explore the mechanistic links between systemic hemodynamics, arterial hypertension, and pCO₂ clearance during NIV.

    The Impact of Comorbidities on the Effectiveness of Noninvasive Ventilation in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease · 2026 · DOI

  • Pulmonary hypertension is a frequent but often under-recognized complication of COPD and is associated with increased hospitalization, exercise limitation, right ventricular dysfunction, and mortality. While pulmonary artery diameter alone is insufficient for definitive diagnosis, values exceeding established thresholds warrant further evaluation with echocardiography or right heart catheterization when clinically indicated.

    High Resolution Computed Tomography Assessment of Pulmonary Artery Diameters in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Study · 2026 · DOI

  • From the primary care physician prospective, we looked bronchodilators, at corticosteroids and antibiotics by recognised the international guidelines on acute exacerbation of COPD management in the community or primary care settings.

    Review of clinical guidelines for the management of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in primary care setting · 2026 · DOI

  • The question of whether AI-aided PFT interpretation results in expedited diagnostics, more effective use of healthcare resources, less expensive healthcare, or the increase in patient satisfaction has not been studied (3,4,5).

    Application Of Artificial Intelligence to Pulmonary Function Test Interpretation: A Scoping Review · 2026 · DOI

  • In summary, FAM13A serves as a pleiotropic gene with complex regulatory mechanisms that plays a critical role in maintaining pulmonary homeostasis and contributing to the pathogenesis of various lung diseases., including COPD, PF, asthma, and lung cancer. Despite considerable research progress, the mechanistic basis of FAM13A’s functions remains incompletely understood, and significant interspecies expression differences—particularly in murine the absence of long FAM13A-a functional models—present characterization and disease modeling. the substantial isoform for challenges Based on the evidence synthesized in this review, several concrete directions warrant prioritization in future research. First, regarding genetic risk stratification, rs7671167 shows consistent associations with COPD across multiple populations (European, Asian, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern) and represents a promising candidate risk assessment. The for COPD rs2609255 variant, associated with IPF susceptibility in Asian and Hispanic populations (OR = 1.47–1.81) and with silicosis risk in Chinese populations (OR = 1.71), may be useful for fibrotic lung disease risk stratification, while rs2869967 (COPD risk in Han Chinese, OR = 2.414) and rs987314 (associated with FeNO levels in asthma) warrant further evaluation as potential biomarkers, though the latter requires validation in non-European populations. Second, patient subgroups could be stratified based on several factors. Smoking history is particularly relevant, as the genetic effects of FAM13A variants (e.g., rs2609264, rs2609261, rs2609260) exhibit multiplicative interactions with smoking status.

    The multifaceted role of FAM13A in pulmonary diseases · 2026 · DOI

  • rehabilitation in examining pulmonary interstitial lung disease might benefit from the use of other types of patient-reported outcome measures that have been found to be more sensitive to short-term clinical changes. 5.3 Recommendations Future studies of pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) in interstitial lung disease (ILD) must focus on larger and more diverse samples. This will enhance statistical power and externality between ILD subtypes. Expanding recruitment to other age groups, disease severity levels, and sociodemographic groups would enable meaningful subgroup analysis. It would also support evidence- based personalization of rehabilitation in each case. Moreover, a longer follow-up is needed to evaluate the sustainability of functional and quality-of-life improvements. Such studies can identify whether maintenance or booster rehabilitation sessions help support long-term results. It is suggested to use multicenter and, where possible, multinational designs. This would help capture variations in health care delivery and rehabilitation infrastructure. It would also improve access to patients across settings and aid translation of results into clinical practice. Additional research should incorporate multidimensional outcome measures, including mental health, fatigue, physical activity, and patient-reported outcomes. Future studies should focus on identifying patient subgroups most likely to respond to PR. Subgrouping can be based on ILD subtype, baseline functional status, symptom burden, and comorbidities. Such a strategy would help build tailored rehab programs, streamline resource distribution, and enhance patient- centered care for ILD management.

    Efficacy of pulmonary rehabilitation combined with minimal-dose adjunctive TCM (Shen Yi Capsules and Hua Chan Su) in improving postoperative outcomes for non-small cell lung cancer: a randomized controlled trial · 2026 · DOI

  • The study analyzed 30-day readmission rates descriptively without employing competing risks regression methods to account for death as a competing event. Future analyses of COPD exacerbation readmission risk between respiratory and internal medicine specialties should use competing risks methodology to obtain unbiased estimates of post-discharge readmission incidence.

    Variation in inpatient investigations and treatment practices for COPD exacerbations between respiratory and internal medicine specialties: a retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • Confounding by indication exists due to baseline differences in patient demographics and comorbidity burden between respiratory and internal medicine admissions, but Charlson comorbidity index and other comprehensive comorbidity measures were unavailable. Quantitative confounding adjustment using validated comorbidity indices specifically adapted for COPD exacerbation populations is needed to isolate specialty-level effects from case-mix differences.

    Variation in inpatient investigations and treatment practices for COPD exacerbations between respiratory and internal medicine specialties: a retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • The exclusion of patients admitted directly to ICU creates survivorship bias in outcome comparisons between respiratory and internal medicine services for COPD exacerbations. Future prospective studies should include critically ill ICU-admitted patients or conduct stratified analyses examining whether critical care allocation differs by specialty to determine if observed mortality and readmission differences reflect triage practices rather than specialty-specific care quality.

    Variation in inpatient investigations and treatment practices for COPD exacerbations between respiratory and internal medicine specialties: a retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • Readmission data capture is limited to public hospitals within Singapore's integrated EPIC EMR network, excluding private healthcare readmissions. The true 30-day readmission rates for COPD exacerbations managed under respiratory versus internal medicine specialties cannot be accurately quantified without capturing readmissions across both public and private healthcare institutions.

    Variation in inpatient investigations and treatment practices for COPD exacerbations between respiratory and internal medicine specialties: a retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • The eight-year study period (2017-2025) spans evolving healthcare practices and the COVID-19 pandemic, confounding temporal trends in COPD exacerbation admission patterns and outcomes. Stratified analyses or sensitivity analyses examining pandemic-specific impacts on respiratory versus internal medicine specialty triage and management practices for COPD exacerbations are needed.

    Variation in inpatient investigations and treatment practices for COPD exacerbations between respiratory and internal medicine specialties: a retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • Admission-level analyses could not account for repeated readmissions from the same patient due to unavailable unique patient identifiers for longitudinal linkage. Future studies incorporating patient-level identifiers and repeated events modeling methodology are needed to accurately estimate 30-day readmission risk in COPD exacerbations while accounting for within-patient correlation and competing risks like mortality.

    Variation in inpatient investigations and treatment practices for COPD exacerbations between respiratory and internal medicine specialties: a retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • The study lacks spirometry, GOLD staging, BODE index components, and long-term oxygen use data, which are essential severity measures for COPD exacerbation risk adjustment. Future studies must integrate these pulmonary function test parameters across institutional systems to enable accurate risk adjustment and determine whether specialty admission alone improves outcomes in COPD exacerbations.

    Variation in inpatient investigations and treatment practices for COPD exacerbations between respiratory and internal medicine specialties: a retrospective cohort study · 2026 · DOI

  • BACKGROUND: Previous studies have shown that inflammatory and antioxidant dietary patterns can modify the risk of COPD, yet few studies have examined the association of these diets with its early signs (PRISm), and the potential role of metabolic disorders remains to be elucidated.

    Associations of dietary inflammation index and composite dietary antioxidant index with preserved ratio impaired spirometry in US adults and the mediating roles of triglyceride-glucose index: NHANES 2007–2012 · 2024 · DOI

  • The relationship between thyroid dysfunction and COPD severity needs prospective longitudinal studies to determine whether thyroid abnormalities are a consequence or contributor to disease progression.

    Assessment of thyroid function tests in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2022 · DOI

  • There are fewer studies comparing the impact of different medication classes on patients' risk of exacerbations; however, the available evidence suggests that LAMA/LABA treatment and LAMA monotherapy lead to a similar reduction in exacerbation risk, while the effect of LAMA/LABA compared with ICS/LABA remains unclear.

    Current evidence for COPD management with dual long-acting muscarinic antagonist/long-acting β<sub>2</sub>-agonist bronchodilators · 2020 · DOI

  • Considering the literature, limited studies have been found that investigating dyspnea, care dependence and frailty variables in geriatric individuals with COPD, simultaneously.

    Interaction Between Dyspnea, Care Dependency, and Frailty in Geriatric Individuals with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease · 2020 · DOI

  • The main ECG predictors of COPD patients? five-year mortality are LBBB and RBBB, but according to statistical model, ECG should be further explored and possibly obligatory involved in a routine clinical practice as an easy and low-cost screening method.

    Electrocardiographic predictors of five-years mortality in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients · 2020 · DOI

  • There is an increasing interest on symptomatic individuals whose whose COPD diagnosis has not been confirmed yet with spirometry but diagnosis is based on alternative methods and approaches.

    The methods other than spirometry in the early diagnosis of COPD · 2019 · DOI

  • INTRODUCTION: Conflicting results has been achieved in a small number of clinical studies evaluating the efficiency of magnesium sulphate (MS) in COPD exacerbations.

    Efficiency of nebulised magnesium sulphate in infective exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2016 · DOI

  • However, the majority of studies to date have primarily relied on symptoms to diagnose VCD, and there are limited data on coexistence of asthma, EIB, and/or VCD.

    Etiology of Dyspnea in Elite and Recreational Athletes · 2012 · DOI

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104 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 789 Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Research papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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