Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is known as progressive lung disease and the fourth leading cause of death worldwide. Acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD) is an important event of disease progression worsening in airway function and respiratory symptoms, bringing about respiratory failure, and increasing the rates of mortality. Despite valuable efforts, there is still no Individualized accurate diagnostic and prognostic tool for COPD. In this context, the investigators are to perform comprehensive transcriptomic, proteomic, metabonomic and exosome characterization of COPD patients and healthy controls. Biological samples of COPD participants, including blood, urine, stool, saliva, bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and clinical characteristics are going to be collected from the remaining materials of the routine clinical examination. And samples of healthy controls will be collected from the rest of the healthy examination practice. By integrating the multi-dimensional data, the investigators aim to elucidate the impact of molecular alterations driving phenotypic variation and to delineate the mechanisms of AECOPD for prospective exploration of personalized, precision-based clinical care.
