Airway remodeling: Shifting the trigger point for exacerbations in asthma

Obstructive airway disease involves a wide spectrum of clinical phenotypes, including mild-to-moderate asthma, severe asthma, asthma–chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) overlap syndrome, and COPD. But, early identification of phenotypes with the aim to prevent progressive changes in the airways and a decline in lung function remains a significant challenge, limiting efforts for a precision medicine approach to targeted treatment. For better identification of treatable traits specifically related to airway remodeling and functional decline even across clinical diagnostic groups, novel combined structural and functional phenotyping methods are urgently needed.