Saturday, March 8, 2014

what is chronic bronchitis?

Chronic bronchitis:

defined clinically as cough and sputum production on ost days for 3 months of 2 successive years.symptoms improve if they stop smoking.

How chronic bronchitis develops:

When there is smoking or air pollution, this cause reduce ciliary and pahgocytary activity of epithelium resulting in mucus accumulation.

This lead to bronchi wall inflammation. Inflammatory infiltration of wall lead to edema resulting in obstruction of the airways. Ifnflammation produce exudate result in cough and expectoration. In small bronchioles , this lead to wall destruction eventually bronchiectasis.

When there is obstruction , its result in in prolonged expiration eventually air trapping causing hypoventilation. Hypoventilation result in hypoxia and hypercapnia. Hypoxia and hypercapnia cause precapillary vasoconstriction lead to pulmonary hypertension finally result in cor pulmonale.

Hypoxia also lead to increase production of erythropoietin resulting in polycytemia.
We can detected hypoxia by formation of cyanosis.


Chronic bronchitis also lead to emphysema by chronic inflammation which cause production of proteolytic enzyme that damage the alveoli.

treatment for chronic brochitis is quite the same with asthmatic bronchiole


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