Lung Disease

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Choose a Topic of These Lung Diseases:
Adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)	Lung cancer
Adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)	Occupational lung disease
Atelectasis	Pleural disorders
Asthma(see subheadings)	Pneumonia
Bronchiectasis	Pneumothorax
Bronchitis	Pulmonary emboli
COPD	Pulmonary hypertension
Cystic fibrosis	Respiratory failure (life support)
Emphysema	SARS
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis	Sleep apnea
Lung abscess	Status asthmaticus(what to do)

[edit] Lung Disease

Introduction:

Lung disease is common among both men and women. It is more frequent in smokers than non-smokers.

The death rate from these diseases is on 4th place (after heart disease, cancer and stroke) and is increasing in women as a group versus men.

This is because women as a group are smoking more now than men and the associated lung diseases such as lung cancer, pneumonia, emphysema and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (=COPD) lead to premature death. In the following review I will concentrate on the more common lung problems, their symptoms, how they are diagnosed and how they can be treated. It goes without saying that prevention measures such as stop smoking, wearing protective masks in industrial high risk areas, moving away from smog infested environments etc. will always be the most powerful tool (Ref.1).

Symptoms of lung disease:

The most common symptoms asssociated with lung disease are coughing, shortness of breath (=dyspnea), wheezing, stridor, coughing up blood (=hemoptysis), chest pain, blue skin discoloration (=cyanosis) and clubbing(=enlargement of the fingertips). Some of these symptoms are due to narrowing of the airways, such as wheezing in asthma, others are due to chronic oxygen deficiency, such as cyanosis and clubbing.

Diagnostic tests:

The simplest way for the practicing physician to come to a diagnosis regarding lung diseases is to take a thorough history, to do a careful examination with auscultation (=listening to the lungs with a stethoscope) and to order a chest X-ray. Often diagnoses such as asthma, pneumonia, ephysema, COPD and others can be accurately diagnosed this way. However, the physician today, particularly the lung specialist, (=respirologist or pneumologist) has a number of other tools that can be useful. This is depicted in this table. The links lead to images where the items are depicted.

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Lung Disease

Respiratory Infection

Special procedures for lung diseases
Name of procedure:	Description of procedure:
allergy testing	skin testing for a battery of allergens, important in many asthma and recurrent or chronic ear and nose infections
arterial blood gases	done by obtaining blood sample through arterial puncture to measure oxygen content
bronchoscopy	with a fiberoptic instrument the specialist can [see the inside of the airways] (trachea, bronchial tubes)
chest imaging	X-rays, CT and MRI scan, PET scan
chest tube insertion	a chest tube can save the patient's life as the collapsed lung is reexpanded with a vacuum
establishing an airway	if asthma is severe or there is a foreign body in the airways, intubation may be life saving
invasive investigations	mediastinoscopy and percutaneous transthoracic needle aspiration
postural drainage	drowning victims are positioned upside down to drain the lungs
pulmonary rehabilitation	chest physiotherapy can make a big difference in COPD patients
pulmonary function testing	peak flow meter, spirometry, pulmonary function testing
thoracotomy	a cut through the chest wall to access the lung tissue
tracheal aspiration	a procedure where secretions are sampled through a long, thin suction hose
tracheostomy	emergency procedure where the trachea is opened to provide an emergency air entry into the lungs
Lung Disease

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Lung Disease

Respiratory Infection

The following gives an overview of the most common lung diseases.

The links transport you right to the beginning of each chapter where the disease is dealt with in more detail.

Common lung diseases
Name of lung disease:		Brief description of disease:
Adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)		Usually viral in origin, the acute shortness of breath is very similar to the RSD of premature babies
Atelectasis		A collapse of a segment of the lower lung, usually in the lower lung area
Asthma	Asthma Introduction	An important lung disease that affects a lot of people. It is an inflammatory condition of the small bronchial tubes (bronchioles), with wheezing and spasm, often associated with allergies.
	Classification of Severity
	Asthma Signs and Symptoms
	Diagnostic Tests for Asthma
	Asthma Treatment
Bronchiectasis		Chronic bronchitis leads to this lung condition where small air sacs melt together forming larger pockets filled with pus
Bronchitis		Acute bronchitis due to viruses or bacteria; chronic bronchitis often due to smoker's lung with chronic infection and scarring
COPD		Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease leads to chronic cough, many infections and evtl. respiratory failure
Cystic fibrosis		Congenital lung abnormality with very viscous mucous in airways; leads to COPD, bronchiectasis
Emphysema		Chronic asthma, COPD and chronic bronchitis can all lead to this end stage lung disease
Hypersensitivity pneumonitis		Farmer's lung is one example, red cedar asthma another
Lung abscess		Acute localized infection/pus in one lung segment
Lung cancer		Bronchogenic carcinoma is the most common cancer in smokers
Occupational lung disease		Examples are silicosis, asbestosis or coal worker pneumoconiosis
Pleural disorders		Lung diseases of the lining of the lungs in the chest cavity leading to pleural effusions
Pneumonia		Infection of the lung tissue, often bacterial
Pulmonary emboli		Clots in the lung vessels lead to this life threatening disease, often originating from clots in the deep veins of the legs (after surgery etc.)
Pneumothorax		Collapse of part or of all of a lung leads to this life threatening condition
Respiratory failure (life support)		A terminal condition of many lung diseases when not enough oxygen can enter the blood stream because of advanced chronic lung disease such as severe asthma, COPD or chronic bronchitis
Sleep apnea		A sleep disorder where the patient stops breathing intermittently for more than 10 seconds and blood oxygen drops
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