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Fig. 2 | Respiratory Research

Fig. 2

From: Spirometric variability in smokers: transitions in COPD diagnosis in a five-year longitudinal study

Fig. 2

The traditional model of ‘progression’ of COPD, whereby non-diseased smokers progress to COPD GOLD Stage I and then to COPD GOLD Stage II+, is over-simplistic. Our findings suggest that not only can spirometric disease states improve or resolve over time at any point in the ‘progression’ trajectory but there may also be an additional model of disease ‘progression’ that includes GOLD Unclassified as an intermediate state between non-diseased smoker and COPD states. Abbreviations: COPD: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease; GOLD: Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

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