TY - JOUR T1 - Lung mucosal immunity: immunoglobulin‐A revisited JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 785 LP - 786 DO - 10.1183/09031936.02.00303902 VL - 19 IS - 4 AU - M. Lusuardi AU - A. Capelli AU - A. Di Stefano AU - C.F. Donner Y1 - 2002/04/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/19/4/785.abstract N2 - To the Editor: We read through the Review by Pilette et al. 1 with extreme interest and would like to add a contribution to the subject of airways immunity in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). For a long time, we have witnessed, at least in Italy, the predominance of the notion that all COPD patients have a certain degree of immune deficiency as a basic pathogenetic mechanism, since they experience recurrent bronchitis exacerbations. Scientific evidence of true general or local immune defects in COPD is, in our opinion, inconclusive, although we fully agree on the point made … ER -