In patients with COPD, even moderate but certainly more severe COPD, each breath is something they have to focus on. They have to understand what they can and can't do within the course of the day, based on their breathing,The leading cause of COPD is smoking, which can lead to the two most common forms of this disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis.Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is permanent obstruction of airflow from the lungs. This disease causes loss of lung function. COPD is the most common respiratory cause of death in the United States and was the fourth leading cause of death overall in the United States in 2002, behind heart disease, cancer and stroke.
Prolonged tobacco use causes lung inflammation and variable degrees of air sac (alveoli) destruction. This leads to inflamed and narrowed airways (chronic bronchitis) or permanently enlarged air sacs of the lung with reduced lung elasticity (emphysema). Between 15% and 20% of long-term smokers will develop COPD.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an umbrella term for a group of respiratory tract diseases that are characterised by airflow obstruction or limitation. The most common cause is tobacco smoking, but COPD can also be caused by exposure to other airway irritants like coal dust or solvents. In some cases there are no known causes (idiopathic COPD) or the disease may arise due to congenital defects.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a term that describes two lung diseases - emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
*Long-term smoking often causes emphysema (pronounced: em-fuh-zee-muh), and although it seldom affects children and teens, it's a condition that can have its roots in the teen and childhood years. In emphysema, the lungs produce an excessive amount of mucus, and the alveoli become damaged. It becomes difficult to breathe and get enough oxygen into the blood. The net result is lungs that are chronically over inflated, symptoms of shortness of breath with exercise, and low oxygen levels in severe cases.
*In bronchitis (pronounced: brahn-ky-tus), a common disease of adults and adolescents, the membranes lining the larger bronchial tubes become inflamed, and an excessive amount of mucus is produced. The person develops a bad cough to get rid of the mucus. This usually manifests as a cough productive of sputum (phlegm) on most days ("smoker's cough"); sometimes this is most apparent upon awakening in the morning. Increased mucus production is a result of irritation of mucus glands by cigarette smoke or other irritants, such as pollution or smoke.
Treatments for COPD consist of behavioral therapies (smoking cessation), exercise programs (rehabilitation), medicines (inhaled bronchodilators; occasionally inhaled steroids), and prevention of exacerbations (flu vaccines, pneumovax, smoking cessation.) A small proportion of patients can be treated with surgical procedures, including lung volume reduction surgery or even transplantation.
Using a long-acting bronchodilator in combination with an inhaled corticosteroid led to a 35 percent reduction in the number of exacerbations experienced by patients with severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), a new study finds.
The study, published in the current issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, included almost 500 patients with moderate to severe COPD who were divided into two groups. One group (507 patients) was treated with the long-lasting bronchodilator salmeterol in combination with the inhaled corticosteroid fluticasone propionate. The control group (487 patients) received only salmeterol.
In the combined therapy group, 324 patients experienced moderate to severe exacerbations, compared to 464 in the control group. This reduction in exacerbations in the combined therapy group is likely of clinical importance for patients with severe COPD, according to the study authors.
"Exacerbations are a major cause of disease-related problems," Dr. Peter Kardos, of the respiratory section of the Maingau Hospital in Frankfurt am Main, said in a prepared statement.
"In particular, they greatly contribute to the decline of health-related quality of life, increase symptoms and breathlessness, speed progression of the disease and increase the risk of mortality. In addition, exacerbations induce enormous economic costs. They can occur at any stage of the disease but become more frequent as lung function impairment worsens," Kardos said.
Smoking is the primary cause of COPD, which results from chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Currently, there is no effective treatment for halting long-term lung function decline in COPD patients.
People with COPD can take other actions to improve their respiratory function, experts say. Breathing exercises – with or without the use of a harmonica – are common recommendations from lung specialists, as are various medications and oxygen therapy. Martinez also recommends remaining as active as possible.
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