Kim SH, Ahn HS, Park JS, et al. - This study sought to utilize a proteomics-based approach to distinguish biomarkers capable of identifying AECOPD. Researchers conducted a prospective, single-center pilot study including 12 patients who came to Asan Medical Center (South Korea) via the outpatient clinic or emergency department with symptoms of AECOPD and were follow-up in the outpatient clinic during convalescence between 2015 and 2017. They collected paired blood samples from each patient during the treatment naïve AECOPD and convalescence stages were examined. In this study, 226 plasma proteins were identified in the sequential window acquisition of all theoretical fragmentation spectra-mass spectrometry (SWATH-MS) analysis across all samples examined. Using the SWATH-MS proteomics method, potential plasma biomarkers of AECOPD were discovered, and functional molecular relationships were tested. It has been reported that SERPINA3 could be a promising diagnostic biomarker for the early identification and tracking of AECOPD.