Will repeated coughing and sputum development into COPD? Doctors teach you to self-test whether you have COPD

Chest tightness, shortness of breath, especially after walking a few steps, you can't breathe. When the weather gets cold, you cough endlessly, accompanied by a lot of phlegm . If you also have these symptoms, you may need to be careful of chronic respiratory diseases!

When it comes to chronic systemic diseases, people may be more familiar with diabetes, cardiovascular disease and chronic kidney disease, but they may not know as much about the fourth largest chronic disease, "respiratory system disease" .

Chronic respiratory diseases are mainly caused by COPD. According to data from the international authoritative journal The Lancet, there are nearly 100 million COPD patients in China, of which 45.7 million are asthma patients aged 20 and above, and the prevalence rate among people aged 40 and above is 13.7%. In just over ten years (2002-2015), the prevalence rate has increased by 67%.

The doctor listed these data to make everyone understand that COPD, which has "five highs and one low" characteristics, namely high prevalence, high incidence, high disability rate, high mortality rate, high economic burden rate and low awareness rate , must attract our attention.

Today is #World COPD Day#. As the weather gradually gets colder, we should pay more attention to and prevent the onset and aggravation of COPD. Toutiao Health, Science Popularization China, and Guangdong Zhong Nanshan Medical Foundation jointly launched the "Protecting Healthy Breathing" topic event. Doctors today also want to use this opportunity to help everyone better understand COPD, and then help everyone better cope with and prevent this disease.

1. What is COPD? How to self-diagnose whether you have COPD?

Regarding COPD, also known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, you may not be familiar with this professional name. To put it simply, COPD is an obstructive lung disease in which foreign matter or dirt accumulates in the lungs due to various inducements, causing obstruction of ventilation in the trachea and bronchial tubes .

It is currently considered a common, preventable and treatable disease, but this prevention and treatment is also limited, mainly referring to early treatment . If it reaches the late stage, it will cause the patient's activity tolerance to decline, and he will be out of breath after walking a few steps, affecting his basic life. In severe cases, it will also cause respiratory failure and cor pulmonale, which will make treatment more difficult. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand and judge the diagnosis and symptoms of COPD.

So what are the common symptoms of COPD that can help us make the diagnosis?

Chronic cough

This symptom is a common symptom of COPD. Since COPD itself is a chronic airway inflammation, it will cause a decline in lung function, and then a long-term cough. Moreover, this cough is often the main cough in the morning, and in the evening it is mainly a paroxysmal cough or expectoration. When the airway is severely obstructed, usually there is only difficulty breathing without coughing.

■ Expectoration

When COPD patients are infected by bacteria, viruses, fungi and other pathogens, the respiratory mucosa is damaged, causing the mucous glands to proliferate and hypertrophy, which will secrete too much mucus and form sputum. The sputum is often white mucus or serous foamy sputum , and occasionally bloody sputum. During the acute attack period, the amount of sputum increases and may become purulent sputum, which is difficult to cough up.

■ Chest tightness, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing

This is also a hallmark symptom of COPD. In the early stages of the disease, it may only manifest as shortness of breath and difficulty breathing after work or exercise. However, as the disease worsens, this situation may also occur in daily life. Some patients may also experience atypical symptoms such as loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue and weight loss.

In addition to self-testing COPD based on symptoms, doctors also provide everyone with a daily self-test method. You can self-test based on symptoms. The higher the level, the more severe the degree of dyspnea:

☛Level 0: No breathing difficulties at other times except during intense exercise;

☛Level 1: Shortness of breath when walking fast or going uphill;

☛Level 2: Due to breathing difficulties and walking speed is slower than that of peers, walking on flat ground for a while requires stopping to rest;

☛Level 3: Walk up to 100 meters on flat ground, or need to stop after walking for a few minutes;

☛Level 4: Obvious breathing difficulties occur, making it difficult to get out of bed and shortness of breath occurs when dressing and undressing.

When the level is within level 3, treatment and conditioning are needed as soon as possible. Once it reaches level 4, it will be difficult to recover. Therefore, it is recommended that you detect and treat it early.

Will repeated coughing and expectoration definitely lead to COPD? What conditions in COPD patients may be fatal?

2. Will repeated coughing and expectoration develop into COPD? COPD patients with pulmonary embolism should pay attention!

From the above symptoms, we know that repeated coughing and expectoration are common symptoms of COPD. When patients have long-term coughs and increased sputum, COPD should be considered. However, we must also be clear that there are many reasons for long-term coughing and expectoration, such as tuberculosis, tumors, and bronchial infections can also cause coughing and expectoration .

Therefore, repeated coughing and expectoration are not necessarily COPD. However, if repeated coughing and expectoration last for 2 years or more , and the coughing and expectoration last for 3 consecutive months each year, but are not treated in time, it is possible to develop into COPD. Doctors also recommend that you pay attention to any long-term symptoms.

In short, not all patients with cough and sputum symptoms will develop into COPD. To make a clear diagnosis of COPD, a lung function test is also required.

Although COPD is a chronic disease, when COPD is combined with pulmonary embolism, it must attract our attention. Pulmonary embolism, in simple terms, is a blood clot blocking the pulmonary artery. It is a more serious respiratory disease . Once a large area of ​​pulmonary embolism occurs, it can even cause sudden death. So why does COPD combine with pulmonary embolism?

This is because COPD patients, especially those with more serious conditions, have difficulty breathing and limited mobility, which leads to lack of physical exercise, resulting in poor blood flow and the formation of blood clots . In addition, patients with pulmonary embolism have reduced lung function and are prone to hypoxia, which in turn affects the insufficient blood oxygen supply to vascular endothelial cells, leading to the occurrence of blood clots.

Once COPD patients have pulmonary embolism, the risk of the disease is greater than that of the two diseases alone. Therefore, when cough, chest tightness, shortness of breath, dyspnea, tachycardia, and pulmonary hypertension occur, timely treatment is necessary.

Whether it is COPD or combined with pulmonary embolism, the prevention of COPD cannot be ignored. How can we prevent the occurrence of COPD during the high incidence season of COPD?

3. How to prevent the occurrence of COPD?

COPD not only causes the decline of lung function, leading to respiratory failure and affecting normal breathing, but once breathing is obstructed, the increased oxygen consumption will also damage the heart and lung function, affecting normal life and physical health. Therefore, it is very important to prevent the occurrence of COPD. It can be prevented in the following ways:

1. Keep warm and enhance resistance

Since COPD patients are prone to catching colds in autumn and winter, and the occurrence of COPD is closely related to inflammation, and the occurrence of inflammation is inseparable from bacterial and viral infections, it is necessary to increase resistance to reduce pneumonia caused by viral infections .

In the autumn and winter season, we must pay attention to keep warm and avoid colds. We should also exercise more often, such as running, walking, playing badminton, table tennis, etc. to increase our resistance.

2. Quit smoking

The harmful substances and particles in the smoke can irritate the bronchial mucosa and cause damage to the bronchial mucosa. When the bronchi are inflamed for a long time, the bronchial function will be reduced, resulting in obstruction of tracheal and bronchial ventilation, leading to the occurrence of COPD.

Quitting smoking can reduce the occurrence of COPD and the number of acute COPD. For patients with bronchial diseases, quitting smoking is essential.

3. Wear a mask when going out

Wearing a mask when going out can reduce contact with droplets from cold and flu patients, prevent inhalation of viruses and bacteria, reduce respiratory infections and play a role in bacterial isolation. On the other hand, wearing a mask can also reduce the damage of haze particles to COPD and avoid acute attacks of COPD.

Moreover, wearing a mask when going out has become a habit for everyone. We hope that everyone can maintain this habit to prevent the impact of influenza and smog.

4. Perform a lung function test

Pulmonary function tests are the gold standard for diagnosing lung diseases. They can be used to identify important indicators of airflow limitation. They play an important role in the acute diagnosis, severity, development and prognosis of COPD.

Therefore, doctors recommend that patients with COPD should undergo a lung function test every six months. When the condition is relatively stable, it may be necessary to do it once a year.

Further reading: Prostaglandins can regenerate the lungs, and the "silent killer" COPD has nowhere to escape

COPD is one of the most common lung diseases in respiratory medicine, which has a significant impact on the damage and repair of lung tissue. In the face of the harm caused by COPD, in May this year, Science Advances published an article titled: Transcriptomics-guided drug target discovery strategy identifies receptor ligands for lung regeneration - prostaglandins and prostacyclins . These two receptors have the ability to restore the damage caused by smoking to lung epithelial cells .

The study found that prostaglandins and prostacyclin analogs have a protective effect on alveolar epithelial progenitor cell damage in vivo and in vitro. This also shows that prostaglandins have a certain repair effect on damaged lung fibrosis caused by COPD and acute respiratory diseases. These data provide a prospective therapeutic strategy for specifically addressing lung repair defects in respiratory diseases.

Doctors also believe that with the deepening of research and the development of medicine, lung regeneration may be possible one day! However, before the research results come out, everyone should protect their lung health, smoke less, and enhance immunity!

References:

[1] Li Qifen. Effect of community rehabilitation nursing on the quality of life of elderly patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease[J]. Qilu Nursing Journal, 2011.

[2] COPD Assessment Forum Expert Group. Expert consensus on the application of the COPD severity assessment system in China [J]. Chinese Journal of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, 2013, 36(6):3.

[3] Huang Xiaona, Li Long, Zhao Hua. Role of prostaglandin E2 in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis[J]. International Journal of Respiratory Diseases, 2022, 42(8):7.