What is emphysema?

One time when I was free, I turned on my computer to see if there were any good movies or TV series. By chance, I saw a short film about environmental pollution, so I opened it and watched it. The scenes were a bit shocking. I didn't expect that the environment would be damaged so badly, which would also affect our human health. In particular, respiratory diseases will gradually increase, such as respiratory tract infections and emphysema. So what is emphysema?

With the progress of society, those bosses who want to seek greater violence are wantonly destroying the environment on which we depend for survival, without thinking about the consequences that environmental destruction will bring to us. People in such an environment are prone to respiratory diseases, the most common of which is emphysema. So what is emphysema? Let us learn about it together!

Causes

The pathogenesis of obstructive pulmonary emphysema is not yet fully understood. It is generally believed to be related to bronchial obstruction and protease-antiprotease imbalance. Smoking, infection and air pollution can cause bronchiolar inflammation, stenosis or obstruction of the bronchial lumen. When inhaling, the lumen of the bronchioles expands and air enters the alveoli; when exhaling, the lumen shrinks, air is trapped, and the intra-alveolar pressure continues to increase, causing the alveoli to over-expand or even rupture. The loss of radial traction around the bronchioles causes the bronchioles to contract and narrow. Thickening of the pulmonary vascular endothelium, reduced blood supply to the alveolar wall, weakened alveolar elasticity, etc., all contribute to the rupture of expanded alveoli. In cases of infection, the activity of proteases in the body increases. People with α1-antitrypsin deficiency have a weakened ability to inhibit proteases, making them more susceptible to emphysema.

Clinical manifestations

The severity of clinical symptoms depends on the degree of emphysema. There may be no symptoms in the early stages or the patient may only feel shortness of breath during labor or exercise. As emphysema progresses, breathing becomes more difficult, until you feel short of breath with minimal activity or even complete rest. Patients feel fatigue, weight loss, loss of appetite, and upper abdominal distension. Accompanied by symptoms such as cough and sputum, typical emphysema patients have an increased anterior-posterior diameter of the chest, a barrel-shaped chest, weakened respiratory movements, weakened voice tremor, hyperresonance on percussion, a narrowing of the cardiac dullness boundary, a downward shift of the liver dullness boundary, decreased breath sounds, sometimes dry and wet rales can be heard, and low and distant heart sounds.

Through the above, we know the causes and clinical manifestations of emphysema. So what is emphysema? I hope people can have a comprehensive understanding. Therefore, we call on everyone to protect our environment and take action quickly for the health of all of us!