This clinical reference for practitioners offers a new and comprehensive look at chronic obstructive lung disease. Global in scale and importance, it is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Bringing together a roster of internationally renowned contributors from the front lines of pulmonary medicine and research, it is aimed at practitioners in pulmonary medicine, pathology, thoracic radiology and epidemiology. Its focus is on the pathobiology of chronic obstructive pathology disease and emphysema and its exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and on treatment options. This reference works to 'connect the dots' by collating and centralizing the various data on the subject.