LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Emphysema
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COPD describes a spectrum of diseases, ranging from chronic bronchitis to emphysema. COPD was the first respiratory disease to be thoroughly studied with health-related quality of life instruments, and the effect of COPD on the lives of individuals has been well characterized. Many studies have employed generic quality of life and health-related quality of life instruments to determine the effectiveness of treatments and rehabilitation programs on the lives of patients with this disease. Several well-validated condition-specific health-related quality of life instruments have ... been developed for individuals with COPD.
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The leading cause of COPD is smoking, which can lead to the two most common forms of this disease, emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Prolonged tobacco use causes lung inflammation and variable degrees of air sack (alveoli) destruction.
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COPD may ... be called by other names, such as emphysema (em-fa-seema) or chronic bronchitis. COPD is a serious lung disease that develops slowly. It may be many years before a person starts to have symptoms of COPD.
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The term COPD is frequently used interchangeably with chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema because they are the most common causes of COPD. Also, their treatment is similar. In the discussion that follows, chronic bronchitis and emphysema are referred to collectively as COPD. They are only distinguished when necessary. The infrequent causes of COPD are not discussed in this review.
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COPD is an umbrella term for a variety of progressive lung diseases, most commonly emphysema and chronic bronchitis, which damage lung tissue and make it difficult to breathe. Cigarette smoking causes the vast majority of COPD cases, but breathing in other kinds of lung irritants may ... cause the disease. A mutation in the alpha-1 antitrypsin gene accounts for about one to
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Tidal breathing occurs at high lung volumes in patients with emphysema-related COPD to compensate for high pulmonary residual volumes and to open collapsed airways. This produces hyperinflation of the lungs and thorax, greatly increasing the total work required to breathe. Patients with emphysema-related COPD are less likely to have right-sided heart failure and cor pulmonale than patients with chronic bronchitis and COPD.
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Emphysema