In medicine, our terminology becomes fixed, with repercussions when translated between languages, discussed among health-care professionals, and converted into lay terms for patients. For example, for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, in using COPD as an abbreviation, the letters C, O, P, and D in some languages do not exist, whereas in lay terms, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease literally means a long-term lung problem. To overcome the non-specificity of using a catch-all term that does not characterise the unique features of an individual patients' symptoms, we now try to establish phenotypes and treatable traits of COPD. Nonetheless, the respiratory health community have neglected translating the term exacerbation, an event that substantially affects morbidity and mortality in patients with COPD. Defining the exacerbation event accurately will be a great advance; however, it is also imperative to redefine the term itself and we propose that an exacerbation of COPD should be renamed a COPD crisis.

中文翻译：

---

慢性阻塞性肺疾病的恶化：重新命名的时间。

在医学上，我们的术语变得固定，当在不同语言之间进行翻译，在医疗保健专业人员之间讨论并转化为患者的非专业术语时会产生影响。例如，对于慢性阻塞性肺疾病，在使用COPD的缩写中，某些语言中的字母C，O，P和D不存在，而从广义上讲，慢性阻塞性肺疾病就意味着长期的肺部疾病。为了克服使用不代表个别患者症状独特特征的通用术语的非特异性，我们现在尝试确定COPD的表型和可治疗性状。尽管如此，呼吸健康界却忽略了恶化一词的翻译，该事件严重影响了COPD患者的发病率和死亡率。准确定义恶化事件将是一大进步。但是，重新定义术语本身也势在必行，我们建议将加剧COPD的行为重命名为COPD危机。