Library · Disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Make it clearer
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is a limit on airflow that does not go away and that keeps getting worse. It typically comes from significant exposure to particles or gases that damage the lung.
Two things happen inside the lung at the same time. One is emphysema: the destruction of the walls of the alveoli, the little sacs where oxygen passes from the air into the blood. Those walls provide the elastic recoil, the bounce that helps you breathe out. With that bounce gone, the air stays inside. The other is obstructive bronchiolitis: airways smaller than two millimeters are remodeled, that is, their walls are rebuilt.
Cigarette smoking accounts for roughly 70% to 80% of cases in high-income countries. The air that cannot get out hyperinflates the lung, keeping it too full, and ends up flattening the diaphragm, the muscle that normally pushes from below with every breath.
In brief
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease limits airflow persistently and progressively, typically from significant exposure to harmful particles or gases.
It combines two injuries: emphysema destroys the alveolar walls and their elastic recoil, and obstructive bronchiolitis remodels airways smaller than two millimeters.
The lung loses the bounce that pushes the air out, and the air stays inside.
Cigarette smoking accounts for roughly 70% to 80% of cases in high-income countries; trapped air hyperinflates the lung and flattens the diaphragm.
Sources (1)
- National Center for Biotechnology Information, StatPearls PublishingChronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), StatPearlsPublished
This page explains the topic in general terms; it does not tell anyone what treatment to follow.
Updated