What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a lung condition that is characterized by airflow limitation. This limitation is not fully reversible, progressive and associated with an abnormal inflammatory response of the lungs to noxious substances and particles. This disease process is usually manifested as chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Majority of patients with COPD have the combination of chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Rarely do they present as pure chronic bronchitis nor as pure emphysema. The most common risk factor of COPD is cigarette smoking. The other risk factors would be exposure to indoor and outdoor pollution, biomass fuel, occupational dust and chemicals, infections and environmental tobacco smoke which would affect passive smokers. Host factors also play a big role in developing COPD. A gene deficiency called alpha 1 anti-trypsin deficiency has been found to cause early onset COPD though this condition is not common in our country. Other host factors would be hyperresponsiveness of the airways and impaired lung growth. Now that we have defined COPD and learned about its components and risk factors, it would be important how to recognize patients with COPD. Patients with COPD present with chronic cough usually productive occurring all throughout the day and are seldom nocturnal which is a characteristic of asthma. The second distinguishing symptom of COPD is progressive and persistent shortness of breath and difficulty breathing. This is usually described by the patient as “air hunger”, “increased effort in breathing”, “chest heaviness”, and “gasping”. This usually worsens during exercise and respiratory infections. The diagnosis of COPD is confirmed by a lung function test called spirometry.