BackgroundPatients with symptoms of both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be classified with the term asthma-COPD overlap (ACO). ACO is of considerable interest as it is currently poorly characterised and has been associated with worse health outcomes and higher healthcare costs compared with COPD or asthma alone. Patients with ACO in Asia remain poorly described, and there is limited information regarding their resource utilisation compared with patients with asthma or COPD only. This study investigated the characteristics, disease burden and medical resource utilisation of patients with ACO in Taiwan.MethodsThis was a retrospective cohort study of patients identified from National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data in Taiwan in 2009–2011. Patients were classified into incident ACO, COPD or asthma cohorts according to International Classification of Disease, ninth revision, clinical modification codes in claims. Eligible patients were ≥40 years of age with 12 months’ continuous enrolment in the NHI programme pre- and post-index date (date of the first relevant medical claim).ResultsPatients with ACO (N = 22,328) and COPD (N = 69,648) were older and more likely to be male than those with asthma (N = 50,293). Patients with ACO had more comorbidities and exacerbations, with higher medication use: short-acting β2-agonist prescriptions ranged from 30.4% of patients (asthma cohort) to 43.6% (ACO cohort), and inhaled corticosteroid/long-acting β2-agonist combination prescriptions ranged from 11.1% (COPD cohort) to 35.0% (ACO cohort) in the 12 months following index. Patients with ACO generally had the highest medication costs of any cohort (long-acting muscarinic antagonist costs ranged from $227/patient [asthma cohort] to $349/patient [ACO cohort]); they also experienced more respiratory-related hospital visits than patients with asthma or COPD (mean outpatient/inpatient visits per patient post-index: 9.1/1.9 [ACO cohort] vs 5.7/1.4 [asthma cohort] and 6.4/1.7 [COPD cohort]).ConclusionsPatients with ACO in Taiwan experience a greater disease burden with greater healthcare resource utilisation, and higher costs, than patients with asthma or COPD alone.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12890-017-0571-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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The current investigation attempted to confirm the beneficial actions of a chemically characterized Radix Astragali decoction (AM-W) against type 2 diabetic (T2D) Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Using a case/control design, after 2 months of treatment with AM-W (500 mg/kg, daily i.p.) in T2D rats therapeutic outcomes were compared. Sucrose and Astragalus polysaccharides (ASPs) were shown to exist in nearly equal proportions in AM-W. Body weight loss, an improvement in insulin sensitivity, and an attenuation of fatty liver after AM-W administration in T2D rats were evident. Surprisingly, blood sugar, beta-cell function, and glucose tolerance in T2D rats did not improve with AM-W treatment. Further investigation indicated the deleterious effects of the addition of sucrose (100 and 500 μg/mL) and APSs (500 μg/mL) on glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and viability, respectively. In conclusion, a proper administration dosage and a reduction in the sucrose content are keys to maximizing the merits of this herb.