Summary: The paper introduces important updates and progress in laboratory tests in the management of asthma and COPD. Asthma and COPD are assessed as heterogeneous diseases including various types of bronchial inflammation. Therapeutic response can be predicted with the use of biomarkers. The importance of blood eosinophils is described. Based on sputum cell analyses, four inflammatory phenotypes of asthma are described. As induced sputum is a difficult and time-consuming technique, several biomarkers in sputum supernatant are used in clinical practice both in asthma and COPD. COPD patients experience a high prevalence of other non-pulmonary conditions. The paper also describes the most important laboratory tests in comorbidities in COPD. As yet there is no specific biomarker that would identify subjects at higher risk of COPD progression.