Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

Description

Alternative Names

Symptoms

The hallmark symptoms of chronic obstructive lung disease are progressive shortness of breath, frequently accompanied by a phlegm-producing cough, with episodes of wheezing. Symptoms may vary, however, or others may be present depending on which disease predominates.

Symptoms of Emphysema

Typically, first symptoms of emphysema occur in heavy smokers in their mid-50s. Emphysema patients have typically lost between 50% and 70% of their lung tissue by the time symptoms begin to appear:

• The predominant early symptom is shortness of breath with light exertion. Coughing is usually minor and there is little sputum.
• Late, severe symptoms include rapid, labored breathing and persistent air hunger even without physical exercise, even during rest or after minimal exertion.
• Physicians sometimes refer to patients with severe emphysema as "pink puffers" because they tend to have pinkish skin and barrel-shaped chests due to overinflated lungs.
• In some cases, involuntary weight loss.

Symptoms of A1AD-related emphysema tend to appear between the ages of 30 and 40. As with standard emphysema, they include shortness of breath after exertion, wheezing, and exercise intolerance.

Symptoms of Chronic Bronchitis

Chronic bronchitis usually causes the following symptoms:

• Coughing with excessive sputum on most days for at least three months of the year, over two successive years. (These symptoms in this time frame are the standard minimums for a diagnosis.)
• As with emphysema, shortness of breath occurs, but it may not be as severe during rest as in emphysema.
• Lying down at night worsens symptoms in advanced conditions, however, so patients must sleep sitting up.
• In late, severe stages, some patients are referred to as "blue bloaters" because lack of oxygen causes the skin to have a blue cast (cyanosis) and because the body is swollen from fluid accumulation caused by congestive heart failure. (Such patients often have emphysema as well.)