I am a specialist in Respiratory Medicine with special interest in Interventional Pulmonary, Allergy-Asthma, Immunology, Tuberculosis, Pleural diseases, Covid and post covid syndromes, Sleep Medicine, critical care and other Respiratory diseases.
Respiratory disease, any of the diseases and disorders of the airways and the lungs that affect human respiration.
Diseases of the respiratory respiratory system may affect any of the structures and organs that have to do with breathing, including the nasal cavities, the pharynx (or throat), the larynx, the trachea (or windpipe), the bronchi and bronchioles, the tissues of the lungs, and the respiratory muscles of the chest cage.
The respiratory tract is the site of an exceptionally large range of disorders for three main reasons: (1) it is exposed to the environment and therefore may be affected by inhaled organisms, dusts, or gases; (2) it possesses a large network of capillaries through which the entire output of the heart has to pass, which means that diseases that affect the small blood vessels are likely to affect the lung; and (3) it may be the site of “sensitivity” or allergic phenomena that may profoundly affect function.
This article discusses the signs and symptoms of respiratory disease, the natural defenses of the human respiratory system, the methods of detecting respiratory disease, and the different diseases of the respiratory system. For more information about the anatomy of the human respiratory system and the process of respiration, see human respiratory system.
The symptoms of lung disease are relatively few. Cough is a particularly important sign of all diseases that affect any part of the bronchial tree. A cough productive of sputum is the most important manifestation of inflammatory or malignant diseases of the major airways, of which bronchitis is a common example. In severe bronchitis the mucous glands lining the bronchi enlarge greatly, and, commonly, 30 to 60 ml of sputum are produced in a 24-hour period, particularly in the first two hours after awakening in the morning. An irritative cough without sputum may be caused by extension of malignant disease to the bronchial tree from nearby organs. The presence of blood in the sputum (hemoptysis) is an important sign that should never be disregarded. Although it may result simply from an exacerbation of an existing infection, it may also indicate the presence of inflammation, capillary damage, or a tumour. Hemoptysis is also a classic sign of tuberculosis of the lungs.
The second most important symptom of lung disease is dyspnea, or shortness of breath. This sensation, of complex origin, may arise acutely, as when a foreign body is inhaled into the trachea, or with the onset of a severe attack of asthma. More often, it is insidious in onset and slowly progressive. What is noted is a slowly progressive difficulty in completing some task, such as walking up a flight of stairs, playing golf, or walking uphill. The shortness of breath may vary in severity, but in diseases such as emphysema (see below Pulmonary emphysema), in which there is irreversible lung damage, it is constantly present. It may become so severe as to immobilize the victim, and tasks such as dressing cannot be performed without difficulty. Severe fibrosis of the lung, resulting from occupational lung disease or arising from no identifiable antecedent condition, may also cause severe and unremitting dyspnea. Dyspnea is also an early symptom of congestion of the lung as a result of impaired function of the left ventricle of the heart. When this occurs, if the right ventricle that pumps blood through the lungs is functioning normally, the lung capillaries become engorged, and fluid may accumulate in small alveoli and airways. It is commonly dyspnea that first causes a patient to seek medical advice, but absence of the symptom does not mean that serious lung disease is not present, since, for example, a small lung cancer that is not obstructing an airway does not produce shortness of breath.
