Chronic Bronchitis Is A Medical Condition That Enhances The Swelling And Mucus

There are no cure for this disease. However, there are different treatment to prevent further deterioration of the lungs function in order to improve the quality of life of the patient by increasing capacity of their physical activity. One of the main severe complication a patient with COPD can develop is exacerbation. Increased breathlessness, increased sputum volume and purulent sputum are the signs and symptoms of exacerbation. Early detection of the signs of exacerbation can help keep the condition of the patient from worsening. The treatments of COPD mainly aims at controlling the symptoms of exacerbation such as taking inhalers. Patients who are over the age of 35 and ex-smokers with chronic cough and bronchitis are recommended to have spirometer (NICE, 2004). This is because it is possible to delay or prevent patients from developing severe case of COPD is identified before they lose their lungs functions. Oxygen therapy is another treatment for COPD as the patients with this condition has high

The main symptoms of COPD are long lasting cough, mucus that come up when you cough, and when you exercise (or even just walk up the stairs) shortness of breath can get worse. When COPD gets worse, it gets harder to eat or exercise, and breathing takes much more energy. People often lose weight and get weaker. Symptoms might even flare up and get much worse. This is called COPD exacerbation. An exacerbation can range from mild to life threatening. The longer you have this disease, the more severe the flare up can get.

Diagnosing COPD is multifactorial, as stated previously, an all-encompassing nursing assessment and patient history must be conducted. When these processes are finalized, and subjective evidence points towards COPD, it is necessary to confirm the diagnosis with objective data. The definitive way to do this is by conducting pulmonary function testing (PFT); specifically, spirometry. On top of diagnosing, spirometry, is also pertinent for staging the patients COPD (Corbridge,et al., 2012). In addition to these facets, there are several other radiologic and laboratory tests that are helpful in determining the severity of COPD; they are not so much diagnostic, as they are informative.

Get to know your usual symptoms, sleep patterns, and when you have good or bad days. This can help you learn the difference between your normal symptoms and signs of a COPD flare-up.

There are generally no noticeable early signs COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Symptoms only start to show after there's been damage to lung tissue. Symptoms of COPD usually get progressively worse after they first begin to appear. You can have COPD and be completely unaware of it - until you notice

The information collected in the history was highly suggestive of COPD. One of the best predictors of airflow obstruction was the patient’s smoking history (Qaseem, et al., 2011, pp. 181). According to Qaseem, et al. (2011), the presence of the patient’s smoking history and wheezing on physical examination is indicative of airflow obstruction (pp. 181). Additionally, the patient’s presenting complaint was dyspnea on exertion, which is one of the most commonly presenting complaints in patients with COPD (Boardman, 2013, pp. 446). The chronic nature of the patient’s cough and slow progression of symptoms are consistent with a diagnosis of COPD rather than asthma. Finally, the diminished breath sounds on auscultation is indicative of airflow obstruction and considered to be a reliable finding in the diagnosis of COPD (Boardman, 2013, pp. 447). In addition to the new diagnosis of COPD, the patient also had current diagnoses of hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and osteoarthritis.

COPD is an important disease to be informed about because it affects millions of people. This paper discusses signs and symptoms, treatments, abnormalities you may find, as well as many of interesting things about COPD. Being informed about COPD can also possibly decrease your chances of developing the disease.

Diagnosis: COPD is often misdiagnosed. If you have symptoms, there are several tests that can help the doctors make a definitive diagnosis such as a pulmonary testing, chest x-ray examines, CAT scans, and an arterial blood gases.

The Lung Pulmonary Function Test measures the amount of air that is inhaled and exhaled with each breath, it also measures the amount of oxygen that blood receives from the lungs. A Chest X-Ray tests the lungs for emphysema, which can be further diagnosed as COPD. A CT Scan can also be used in order to detect emphysema and determine if you’re eligible for surgery. This scan can also show different types of lung cancer that may have developed. The Arterial Blood Gas Analysis is another form of testing that can be used to diagnosis this disease. This test measures how well your lungs bring in oxygen and release carbon dioxide. In order to check for an Alpha-1 deficiency, a Laboratory Test can be performed. Although there are many forms of diagnosing this disease, there is no actual cure. However, there are many ways to reduce the symptoms which include medicines that can help with specific symptoms, an increase of physical activity, prevention of flare-ups, quitting smoking and inhalation of other harmful substances, and pulmonary

Following the pathologic changes of chronic bronchitis and bronchiectasis, many patients will present with the following symptoms: shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, wheezing, productive cough and hemoptysis (Stauffer). Many of these symptoms will occur after the patient has recently contracted common cold viruses or other irritants as they weaken the body’s natural balance in the respiratory tract. With the majority of patients having a sudden increase of mucus production, this will have a tendency to obstruct the airways and prevent ventilation. In some cases the patient is able to clear the airway of the obstruction simply by coughing, but excessive coughing can lead to a much more problematic bronchospasm. Also, due to the weakened airway of bronchiectasis patients and increased thick sputum, coughing may prove to be vastly ineffective. These diseases are diagnosed with a combination of examinations such as Pulmonary Functions Tests (PFT), Chest

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lung disorder characterized by a small airway obstruction and reduction in expiratory flow rate (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). It affects over ten percent of the United States’ population, is the 4th leading cause of death, and costs over $37 billion annually to treat (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). In 2013, 2.8% of every 100,000 diagnosed with COPD, died from chronic bronchitis or emphysema related causes (CDC, 2014). Common risk factors for the development of COPD include smoking, air pollution, chronic respiratory infections, and hyperresponsive airways due to asthma (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). Unfortunately, early signs and symptoms of COPD are practically nonexistent. Once a patient starts exhibiting symptoms, the disease has progressed significantly (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). Pulmonary function tests are essential to diagnose COPD. Forced vital capacity, or the maximum amount of air exhaled with force, indicates lung size (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). Forced expiratory volume (FEV1) measures the maximum amount of air expired in one second (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). FEV1 and symptoms exhibited are used to stage COPD (Arcangelo & Peterson, 2013). COPD is staged at five levels of severity (Refer to Appendix for severity scale). The severity of COPD is defined by FEV 1 %, or the maximal amount of air forcefully exhaled in one second using spirometry (Timmins, et.al., 2012). Emphysema and chronic

Spirometry is the most popular lung function test. The patient performs a maximal inhalation and then forcefully exhales as quickly and as long as they are able. The spirometer measures the volume of the air exhaled by patients. These measurements are taken at two intervals. The first measurement is the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), records the volume of air exhaled after one second. The second measurement is taken at the point where the patient has fully exhaled the volume of inhaled air; this measurement is the forced vital capacity (FVC) (Harpreet Ranu et al.,

The signs and symptoms include breathlessness, frequent coughing, wheezing and tightness in the chest (COPD Foundation, 2016). Complications of COPD include respiratory infections, heart problems, lung cancer, high blood pressure and depression (Mayo Clinic, 2015). Laboratory abnormalities of COPD is shown through arterial blood gas analysis which shows how well oxygen can enter the lungs and remove carbon dioxide. If the oxygen can barely enter and remove less carbon dioxide the patient is shown to have evidence of COPD (Mayo Clinic, 2015). Common treatments and modifications to treat COPD is to reduce smoking by going to smoking sensation classes if the patient is a smoker, bronchodilators, inhaled steroids, combination inhalers, oral steroids, antibiotics, theophylline and phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor. Other treatments are lung treatments such as oxygen

Bronchitis: This disease is an inflammation of the mucous membrane in the bronchial tubes. People that have bronchitis cough up thickened mucus, bronchitis can be chronic or acute. acute bronchitis is common. but chronic bronchitis is more serious and is constant, and the cause is usually smoking. Acute bronchitis only lasts a few days, some symptoms are: A cough, mucus which can be clear, white yellowish, gray, or a green colour sometimes the mucus the mucus can be streaked with blood, tiredness, shortness of breath, slight fevers and chills, chest discomfort. Acute bronchitis is mostly caused by viruses, like viruses that cause cold and flus, antibiotics does not work for most types of bronchitis. The most common cause of bronchitis is smoking

Some of the laboratory testing used to identify COPD are arterial blood gas and increased hematocrit levels. Arterial blood gas testing will reveals hypoxemia and hypercarbia due to the retention