“…Although the exact prevalence varies between studies (Bitar, Ghoto, Dayo, Arain, & Parveen, 2017;Makarevich, Valevich, & Pochtavtsev, 2007;Parappil, Depczynski, Collett, & Marks, 2010), patients with COPD in general tend to have a greater chance of developing diabetes (type 2) with a prevalence of 18.7% in COPD patients versus 10.5% in the general population (Cazzola, Bettoncelli, Sessa, Cricelli, & Biscione, 2010;Yin et al, 2017). Persistent systemic inflammation appears to be an important mechanistic factor responsible for the progression of the two diseases (Akpinar et al, 2012;Tkacova, 2010;Yanbaeva, Dentener, Creutzberg, & Wouters, 2006), greatly increasing an individual's risk for comorbidities such as cardiovascular complications (Barnes & Celli, 2009;Cazzola et al, 2010;Vogelmeier et al, 2017).…”