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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, refers to a group of lung diseases that are associated with difficulty in breathing (shortness of breath) due to obstruction of the bronchial airway and/or poor oxygenation of the blood due to damaged alveoli (air sacs of the lung tissue). The two chief types of COPD include chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Asthma and COPD can present with similar symptoms which can lead to errors in diagnosis.
COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and Canada. It affects approximately 15 million Americans and causes 100,000 deaths each year. Ninety percent of all COPD cases are caused by chronic cigarette smoking. However, a small percentage of individuals with emphysema have an inherited type of disease or disease of an unknown cause.
The two most common types of COPD are chronic bronchitis and emphysema. It is possi
ble to have one or both of these diseases. Chronic bronchitis causes inflammation of the air passageways in the lungs (bronchial tubes) and increased mucus production. The mucous glands are enlarged and produce excessive amounts of mucus. This often causes a chronic cough. As the inflammation progresses over time, the airways become narrow and irreversibly obstructed. If you suffer from chronic bronchitis, it is likely you experience symptoms of coughing and increased sputum as well as shortness of breath and wheezing.
Emphysema is a disease caused by damage to the lung tissues called alveoli where oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange occurs. Cigarette smoking is the most common cause of destruction of these air sacs, leading to an inability to absorb oxygen into the lungs. If you suffer from emphysema, shortness of breath is often the primary symptom, although symptoms of coughing and wheezing may also be prominent.
With COPD, you will often have elements of both chronic bronchitis and emphysema, rather than purely one or the other. Early in the disease process, symptoms may be obvious only when you have a "chest cold" or during strenuous physical exertion. In between these periods, you may feel quite well and be free of symptoms. Unfortunately, your COPD will progress silently over time, causing ever more permanent lung damage, especially if you continue to smoke cigarettes. Inevitably, symptoms become more frequent over time, and eventually symptoms of coughing, shortness of breath and wheezing become disabling, requiring you to use supplemental oxygen to carry out simple everyday chores. In the worst cases, COPD causes the heart to fail, and you can ultimately succumb to your disease.
COPD is an obstructive airway disease, and in this way it is quite like asthma. In fact, early in COPD development, you may have very similar symptoms to those seen in asthma (e.g. coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath). However the cause of COPD is usually due to cigarette smoking, and the resulting inflammation is different than the inflammation found in the asthmatic airway, thus leading to an entirely different outcome.
COPD is often misdiagnosed as asthma early in its development.While the obstructive nature of asthma and COPD may be similar in some ways, they are two very different diseases.
Asthma and COPD differ in many ways. COPD is usually caused by cigarette smoking while asthma is not caused by smoking, although it will be worsened by smoking. Asthma is frequently associated with allergy while COPD is not. Asthma is usually highly responsive to medications, and avoidance of symptom triggers usually results in reversibility of airway obstruction. In contrast, the airway obstruction in COPD rarely shows much reversibility with treatment. However, the progression of COPD may be stopped or slowed down with smoking cessation. An allergist or pulmonologist can tell the difference between asthma and COPD and offer appropriate treatment.
Finally, it should be realized that asthma and COPD can coexist. If you have asthma and smoke cigarettes for years, it would not be unusual for you to develop COPD. In this case, both COPD and asthma coexist. Therefore, both diseases must be treated at the same time.
Treatment:
Although treatment will not reverse permanent lung damage that has already occurred, it can slow down or stop further damage, offer relief from symptoms, increase the quality of life and increase the duration of your life span.
Treatment includes:
The Goals of COPD Treatment
Aside from relieving symptoms, it is important to realize that you can affect the natural history of your disease by beginning treatment early. The earlier COPD is diagnosed and treated, the greater the odds of limiting permanent lung damage and the natural progressive nature of the disease. The goal is to help you better manage the effects of your disease and to live as fully and actively as possible.
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