Lung vessels in COPD: it is time to take them seriously!

Symposium
Chairs: B. Celli Croquer (Boston, United States of America), H. Olschewski (Graz, Austria)
Aims: to discuss important interactions between the airways and pulmonary vasculature in patients with COPD as well as growing knowledge of the relevance of pulmonary vascular involvement in these patients; to help participants distinguish between patients with different COPD phenotypes and make clinical decisions in order to provide optimal treatment.

Do COPD patients have a pulmonary vascular phenotype? A. Agusti Garcia-Navarro (Barcelona, Spain)
Reasons why pulmonary pressure increases in COPD patients G. Kovacs (Graz, Austria)
Mechanisms underlying pulmonary vascular changes in COPD patients W. Seeger (Gießen, Germany)
Diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary hypertension in COPD patients: how far should we go? M. Humbert (Paris, France)