Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is preventable disease that has a detrimental effects on both the airway and lung parenchyma (Nazir & Erbland, 2009). COPD categorises emphysema and chronic bronchitis, both of which are characterised by a reduced maximum expiratory flow and slow but forced emptying of the lungs (Jeffery 1998). The disease has the one of the highest number of fatalities in the developed world due to the ever increasing amount of tobacco smokers and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality (Marx, Hockberger & Walls, 2014). Signs and symptoms that indicate the presence of the disease include a productive cough, wheezing, dyspnoea and predisposing risk factors (Edelman et al., 1992).
All over the world, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a very significant and prevalent cause of morbidity and mortality, and it is increasing with time (Hurd, 2000; Pauwels, 2000; Petty, 2000). Due to the factor of COPD being an underdiagnosed and undertreated disease, the epidemiology (Pauwels, Rabe, 2004) is about 60 to 85 % with mild or moderate COPD remaining undiagnosed (Miravitlles et al., 2009; Hvidsten et al., 2010).
A range of emotional factors including fear, stress, anxiety, and pain can affect a person’s ability to breathe correctly and efficiently. The healthcare environment involves a considerable amount of stress and anxiety. Patients often demonstrate fear for their own well- being or
R.W. appears with progressive difficulty getting his breath while doing simple tasks, and also having difficulty doing any manual work, complains of a cough, fatigue, and weight loss, and has been treated for three respiratory infections a year for the past 3 years. On physical examination, CNP notice clubbing of his fingers, use accessory muscles for respiration, wheezing in the lungs, and hyperresonance on percussion of the lungs, and also pulmonary function studies show an FEV1 of 58%. These all symptoms and history represented here most strongly indicate the probability of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a respiratory disease categorized by chronic airway inflammation, a decrease in lung function over time, and gradual damage in quality of life (Booker, 2014).
COPD is one of the greatest causes of disability and mortality in the twenty first century with future predictions painting an even graver story. Occupation, genome, and primarily smoking are the main causes of COPD. COPD is the third leading cause of death in America, claiming the lives of 134,676 Americans in 2010. Symptoms are typical of a constant smokers cough which progresses into the debilitating palliative stage of the disease; the development of co-morbidities exacerbates these symptoms. COPD has a complex pathophysiology involving hyperinflation, excessive mucus production and airway remodeling; diagnosis is through lung function tests. COPD is poorly managed with few effective treatments and a poor
Have you ever known a person who smokes and has a hard time doing every day activities, due to difficulty of breath, or constantly coughing. He or she may have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD. COPD is a progressive and treatable lung disease that causes shortness of breath due to obstruction of air way (COPD, 2013). Progressive means that is gradually gets worse over time. It is a combination of chronic bronchitis and emphysema (Causes,2014). Chronic bronchitis is inflammation of the bronchioles, which causes mucus build up (Davis,2016). Emphysema is when the air sacs get enlarged (Smoking, 2016). Since the disease does not have a cure yet it is important to know pathology (path of disease), epidemiology (who is effected in a population), ethology (who is effected genetically), manifestation (symptoms), treatment, and outcome.
Throughout the course of both the film La Mission, and the book, “Breathing, In Dust”, they have reoccurring themes from start to finish . One of the theme that is always appearing in both the movie and the book is family. Family is very critical in La Mission, it is shown throughout the movie having Che caring for his son who has flaws about his gender role. However, Che being a single parent living in the ghettos still nurtures Jesse. As for the book, Tlaloc always cares about his family. For example, he took care of his ill grandma that had cancer also, he cherishes his grandpa’s livelihood story. As for contradicting themes in both the film and the novel, gender role was one of them. As mentioned before, in the movie La Mission, Jesse had
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.
when this test is taken it can diagnose COPD even before you have any signs at all.
Furthermore, they ran different tests on me for my asthma, one being an Exhaled Nitric Oxide test. This test measures the level of nitric oxide in an exhaled breath. This test, along with the other test preformed, helped the doctors find an obstruction in one of my lungs that I never even knew I had.
Cystic fibrosis also known as CF is a rare life threatening genetic disorder. CF causes individuals with this disorder to have persistent lung infections, in turn limiting their breathing. Individuals with cystic fibrosis, have a mutated gene that causes a thick, build-up of mucus in the lungs. Generally, it affects many of the body’s organ systems and is only found in about 200,000 people per year in the United States. Cystic fibrosis is the most widely recognized, life-shortening hereditary sickness in Caucasians. It influences the vehicle of salt and water crosswise over cells and influences distinctive organs, yet lung infection is in charge of the dominant part of manifestations, weight of care, and lost years of life. The quality that causes the sickness has now been recognized and sequenced. (Junge et al., 2016)
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Approximately 12 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with COPD. Many more may be affected and don’t know they have it. Its generality increases with age. Men are more likely to have the disease, but the death rate for men and women is the same (2014).
Serious respiratory diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, are a leading cause of morbidity and death worldwide. Asthma, a chronic disease that involves inflammation of the airways, bronchoconstriction, and intermittent (usually reversible) airflow obstruction, also affects numerous individuals worldwide. Both COPD and asthma are common obstructive lung disorders that affect over 49 million people in the US (1). While the pathology of asthma and COPD are distinct, both diseases share some features. Asthma is often a childhood disease, but some patients manifest symptoms or develop the disease as adults.
For this discussion topic, I decided to talk about COPD. COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which causes obstructed airflow from the lungs. Some symptoms of COPD is coughing, shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, having to clear the throat due to excess mucus in the lungs and lack of energy. Test that could be done to help diagnosis COPD would be a pulmonary function test, chest x-ray, CT scan and arterial blood gas analysis. A pulmonary function test is the most common lung test. During this test, the patient will blow into a large tube connected to a spirometer. This machine measures how much air the lungs can hold and how fast the patient can blow out air. The chest x-ray can show emphysema, which is one of
Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases and has been recognized as a growing public health concern. Exposure to tobacco smoke either through active smoking or by secondhand smoke can cause and/or exacerbate an asthma attack or asthma symptoms (Californian Environmental Protection Agency [Cal EPA, 2006]). In a person with asthma, cigarette smoke can initiate and worsens asthma by irritating the airways to cause asthma symptoms (World Health Organization [WHO, 2010]). The impact of Asthma is not limited to those with the disease but also affect their family members, friends, schools and businesses (WHO, 2010).