Mucus plugging on computed tomography and the sputum microbiome in patients with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and asthma-COPD overlap

Despite clinical implications, the pathogenesis of mucus plugging in asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and asthma-COPD overlap (ACO) remains unclear. We hypothesized that distinct airway microbiomes might affect mucus plugging differently among ACO, asthma, and COPD and among different extents of airway eosinophilic inflammation.