COPD exacerbations should be called ‘crises’ instead, according to an international group of respiratory medicine specialists.

Research suggests only 2% of patients understand the term ‘exacerbation’, write the authors, led by the University of Oxford, and including Professor Vanessa McDonald from the University of Newcastle in Australia.

“It is not unusual to be in a clinic with a patient, trying to rephrase the question ‘how many exacerbations have you had’ several times,” they write in a recent commentary in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

“We often have to resort to trying different terms such as asking how many chest infections or flare-ups they have had or how many times they have taken steroids or antibiotics for their chest.