Scientists have in a groundbreaking study identified 5 different clusters in asthma and COPD that go beyond disease labels, which could help develop a treatable traits approach for the prevention of exacerbations in patients with chronic inflammatory airways diseases. The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, identified the five different exacerbation-prone phenotype clusters such as High eosinophil counts, Smokers with impaired lung function, Presence of gastroesophageal reflux disease, Non-allergic females, Allergic rhinitis and elevated total immunoglobulin E levels (IgE), in patients. The research analysed 117 patients with asthma, 48 with COPD and 37 with asthma-COPD overlap from the University of Tsukuba Hospital in Japan and its affiliated hospitals.