Recent genome-wide association studies identified family with sequence similarity 13, member A (FAM13A) gene as a genetic locus associated with pulmonary function [4], and it is known to be associated with lung diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) [5], asthma [6] and pulmonary fibrosis [7–9]. This evidence concerns the gene FAM13A and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.