COPD recent findings: impact on clinical practice.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is now considered as a systemic disease originating in the lungs. The natural history of this disease reveals numerous extrapulmonary manifestations and co-morbidity factors that complicate the evolution of COPD. Recent publications have documented these systemic manifestations and co-morbidities and clarified somewhat the role of muscle dysfunction, nutritional anomalies, endocrine dysfunction, anaemia, osteoporosis and cardiovascular and metabolic disorders as well as lung cancer and psychological elements in this complex disease. Importantly, recent studies have shown that effort intolerance, exertional desaturation, loss of autonomy and reduced physical activity, loss of muscle mass and quadriceps strength as well as dyspnoea and impaired quality of life can be considered as independent predictive factors for survival in COPD. Use of these data may advance understanding of mechanisms; improve evaluation and thereby patient management in COPD.