Epartition of asthma to COPD sufferers becoming treated by the pulmonologist ( , , , or), as well as the sex of your pulmonologist.guidance for the diagnosis of aCOsBased around the final results in the survey, guidance for the diagnosis of ACOS was proposed by the specialist panel.A methodology related to the Spanish consensus on ACOS was implemented.Criteria that have been regarded as relevant (Likert score) by from the survey JNJ-42165279 web participants were retained for the development of guidance to think about ACOS in COPD or asthma sufferers.The two criteria that were rated “relevant” by the highest percentage of pulmonologists for every closeended question had been selected as major criteria, and all other criteria that surpassed the cutoff for “relevant” criteria had been incorporated in the suggestions as minor criteria.The professional panel agreed that presence of two significant criteria and no less than one particular minor criterion was required for any reliable diagnosis of ACOS each in asthma and COPD individuals.statisticsThe benefits from the survey had been analyzed employing descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages for categorical variables; imply, typical deviation, median, and first and third quartiles for continuous variables).Crosstabulation was made use of for comparisons in between categories.Percentages had been calculated in accordance with the number of out there answers.evaluation from the survey answersAnswers to openended inquiries one particular and four had been grouped in clusters in line with similarity of provided answers.One example is, for query one, the answers “smoking cessation”, “history of smoking”, “nicotine use”, or “number of packyears” had been grouped with each other in the cluster “smoking”.For the closeended queries two and 3, a Likert scale was applied using a score ranging from to .Scores were defined inside the questionnaire as follows very irrelevant;Benefits survey participantsThe survey was conducted in between October and December , .Out on the pulmonologists invited to participate in the survey, adequately completed the questionnaire (response price of) (Figure).CharacteristicsInternational Journal of COPD submit your manuscript www.dovepress.comDovepressCataldo et alDovepressFigure Participant flow chart.in the participants are shown in Table .The participants may be regarded as a representative sample of your whole Belgian population of pulmonologists invited to participate (information not shown).Essential criteria for the diagnosis of aCOsAs shown in Figure , in the pulmonologists described “reversibility in lung function andor airway obstruction” because the most important criterion associated to the diagnosis of ACOSTable Traits of participants (n)Traits sex Male Female Years of practice hospital variety nonacademic academic area Flanders Wallonia PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21466776 Brussels Proportion asthmaCOPD treated n (survey openended question 1).Other generally reported criteria were “history or diagnosis of asthma”, “allergy or atopy”, and “smoking”, which had been incredibly normally cited in association with the most regularly described criterion reversibility ( according to the criterion).All reported criteria are summarized in Table S.Criteria to qualify a COPD patient as aCOs patientFifteen criteria were predefined by the group of specialists and ranked by every participant on a Likert scale (Figure , Table).The two criteria that were viewed as “relevant” (Likert score) by the highest percentage of pulmonologists and retained as important criteria have been “degree of variability of airway obstruction” and “degree of response to br.