Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary (COPD) other link :

by notes of doctor dott. Claudio Italiano, an hospital internist

auscultare un torace le bronchiti il paziente con dispnea

radiografie del torace e radiografia standard del torace il dolore al torace!!

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive pathology that it manifests itself slowly and subtly. Little by little it leads to obstruction of the airways, and affects those channels (bronchi and bronchioles) that allow breathing, linking the parenchyma of the lung to first airway so it is not a reversible process, but it creates a stabil injury and the doctor finds it difficult to turn back the patient in health. This disease affects those people who go against repeated inflammation of the, such as the classic cigarette smokers who could live almost as 100 years as their grandfather, but in reality for the 10,000 irritants substances in cigarette smoke have died.

Symptoms

The main symptoms of COPD are caracterized by a hungry for air or wheezing , technically known as "dyspnea", from the greek bad breath, which is a serious clinical symptom, and is accentuated by the efforts (it's very important to make differential diagnosis with heart failure or insufficiency pump), productive cough and 'chronic sputum. The symptoms are virtually the same of asthma , which is different due to the irreversibility of the restriction of air flow.

Criteria for distinguishing COPD from asthma
COPD	ASTHMA
Appears in adulthood	Often appears in children
Daily symptoms and slowly progressive	Symptoms vary depending on the day, with access
Associated with a long history of smoking	Often associated with allergies, rhinitis and / or eczema and family history of asthma
Dyspnea during exercise	more often nocturnal symptoms
Reduction of expiratory air flow largely irreversible	Reduction of expiratory air flow largely reversible
. The Chronic Obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of chronic morbidity and mortality worldwide and in the U.S. is the fourth cause of death, with a steadily increasing trend. What is the cause of bronchitis?Which factor determines a copd and what are the risk factors? If you smoke, can you really become sick or this question is just a stupid doctors statement? The most important risk factor of COPD is cigarette smoking, because contains more than 10,000 irritants and just one that determinates a dependence and a voluptuous smoking wish, the nicotine. The presence of a paper in the cigarettes is responsible for the presence of the aromatic and tar substances that injure the lung and and also the smoke pipe, cigar and other types of tobacco are just the same risk factors that can determine the onset of COPD. You have to know that yet smoking is responsible for AOCP, and is associated with a worsening of the clinical picture in varicose veins, because the carbon monoxide conteined in smoke, damages the endothelium of the veins!. Why an healthy environment with green plants that humidified air and lower the content of the dust, are very important factors to reduce the risk of COPD, and what are the dusts? Other risk factors for COPD include: Breathe dust in work environment and chemicals (vapors, irritants, and fumes) when the exposure to these substances is sufficiently intense or prolonged Indoor pollution caused by cooking and heating in poorly ventilated environments. Pollution outside the aspiration of so-called PM10, which are inhaled into the smaller bronchioles, whose role in determining the COPD is not yet well determined. Passive cigarette smoke DIAGNOSIS OF COPD The diagnosis of COPD should be considered in all persons who have the characteristic symptoms of the disease and a history of exposure to risk factors, particularly cigarette smoking Indicators to consider the diagnosis of COPD are: Chronic cough: This daily or intermittently. Often this all day, rarely only at night Chronic sputum: any type of chronic sputum may indicate COPD. Acute bronchitis: repeated episodes. Dyspnea that is: progressive (worsening over time). Persistent (present every day). Worsens with exercise. Worsens during respiratory infections. . History of exposure to risk factors: Tobacco smoke (depending on the local use) Occupational dusts and chemicals. Smoke from burning cooking and heating. The diagnosis should be confirmed by spirometry. It is a very simple test (so to speak!) Where the patient is connected to a machine via a mouthpiece and breathe and must, above all, exhale, that is throwing off the air, as soon as possible. Through this individual capacity, we will evaluate some parameters, including vital capacity, ie how much air there is inside the lungs, and the peak in the first second, that is how much air you are able to "throw out" the first second, FEV1, which is an expression of the health of the lung (see below for more specified works)! Where it is not possible to perform a spirometry, you should arrive at the diagnosis of COPD with all the tools available, including through the rays of the chest which may give information about disease (Thorax RX), or from the signs and symptoms (dyspnoea and increased Forced expiratory time) may contribute to the diagnosis of COPD. Low values of peak expiratory flow are present in the course of COPD, but have low specificity, since they can be present also in other pulmonary diseases and to be present in case of bad test run. To improve the accuracy of the diagnosis of COPD, it is necessary to make any effort to perform a standardized spirometry.