Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a devastating lung disease characterized by incomplete and reversible airflow limitation, which usually develops progressively and is associated with an abnormal inflammatory response of the lungs to harmful particles or gases. COPD is a chronic inflammatory airway disease that can be prevented and treated, and although COPD is a disease of the airways, its systemic effects on the whole body cannot be ignored. .
I. Main symptoms.
l. Chronic cough can be lifelong with the development of the disease, often with a pronounced cough in the morning and a paroxysmal cough or sputum discharge at night.
2. Coughing sputum is usually white mucus or plasma foamy sputum, occasionally with blood, more sputum in the early morning, more sputum during acute attacks, and purulent sputum.
3.Shortness of breath or dyspnea appears in the early stage when exerting oneself, and then gradually worsens, so that shortness of breath is felt even during daily activities and even at rest, which is the signature symptom of COPD.
4, wheezing and chest tightness some patients, especially severe patients or acute exacerbation with wheezing.
5, other advanced patients have weight loss, loss of appetite, etc.
Early signs may not be abnormal, but the following signs may appear as the disease progresses.
Visual and tactile examination of the anterior and posterior diameter of the thorax increases, and the lower angle of the sternum under the saber is widened (barrel-shaped chest), and some patients have shallow breathing, increased frequency, and in severe cases, lip-shrinking breathing, etc.; tactile fibrillation is weakened.
2.Percussion lung hyperclear sounds, narrowing of the cardiac turbid boundary, and decreasing of the lower lung and liver turbid boundaries.
3, auscultation of the two lung breath sounds are weakened, prolonged expiration, some patients can be heard dry stern (or) wet woven grass
[The diagnosis of COPD is based on the history of smoking and other high-risk factors, clinical symptoms, physical signs and pulmonary function tests, etc. Incomplete reversible airflow limitation is a necessary condition for the diagnosis of COPD. In a few patients without cough and sputum, COPD can be diagnosed only if FEV1/FVC is <70% and FEV1 is ≥80% of the expected value on pulmonary function tests, excluding other diseases.
The severity of COPD can be graded based on FEV1/FVC, FEV1 % expected and symptoms.
How can a patient tell if he or she may have COPD?
The onset of COPD is often uncomfortable and many patients do not seek medical attention until their dyspnea is severe, by which time it has progressed to moderate or higher.
The following patient self-assessment questions can help with early detection.
1. How many times a day do you often cough?
2. Do you often have phlegm?
3. Do you feel shortness of breath more easily than people of your age?
4.Are you older than 40 years old?
5. Do you smoke now, or have you ever smoked?
If you answer “yes” to more than three questions, you should consult your doctor and have a pulmonary function test, which is an important tool for COPD diagnosis and helps to diagnose COPD early and get early treatment.
COPD is closely related to chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Chronic bronchitis refers to chronic, non-specific inflammation of the bronchial walls, and can be diagnosed as chronic bronchitis if the patient coughs and sputters for 3 months or more each year for 2 years or more, with the exception of other known causes of chronic cough. When COPD is diagnosed in patients with chronic bronchitis or (and) emphysema who have airflow limitation on pulmonary function tests and are not fully reversible, COPD is diagnosed if the patient has only chronic bronchitis or (and) emphysema without airflow limitation. It cannot be diagnosed as COPD, but is considered as a high-risk stage of COPD. Bronchial asthma also has airflow limitation, but bronchial asthma is a special airway inflammatory disease with reversible airflow limitation, and it is not COPD.