What is chronic bronchitis ?

The bronchitis is a common lung disease. The most severe form of bronchitis is the chronic bronchitis which is caused by chronic inflammation of the bronchi. The bronchi are the medium sized airways in the lungs. So the chronic bronchitis causes serious problem for the airways of the lungs. In general medical term, the chronic bronchitis is considered as a form of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD.

The chronic bronchitis is often described as unrelenting cough. The patient suffers by the dieses for about two to three months of couple of years. The chronic bronchitis is occurred in the lower portion of the airways. It is characterized by extreme secretion of mucus and hypertrophy of mucous glands. This narrows down the area of airflow. The swelling of the airs paces is known as the emphysema. This break down the alveolar walls and causes the loss of elastic recoil. If both of them overlap, then the outcome might be very serious and might changes the structure of the airways.

Signs and symptoms of chronic bronchitis

The most common symptom of the chronic bronchitis is the cough. The cough produces mucus and sputum. For this reason, it is also known as productive cough. Besides the constant coughing, there are some other symptoms that are very common for most lung diseases patients and that include shortness of breathing and wheezing. The medical term of breathing problem is dyspnea.

Some of the patients of chronic bronchitis may have fever, chest pain and in some cases, fatigue. In some special occasions, the victim might get malaise.  The mucus of the cough of the chronic bronchitis patient will have yellowish green or green. In some cases, the mucus can be shown in pink or orange. The color depends on the pathogen that is caused by inflammation.

Respiratory failure is very common for chronic bronchitis patients as well as overwhelming infection in the respiratory. Pneumonia is also seen among the chronic bronchitis victims frequently. Arrhythmias, depression and some time heart failure can occur to the patients of chronic bronchitis.

Causes of chronic bronchitis

The chronic bronchitis is caused for excessive smoking. Like most other lung diseases, the smoking is very severe for the bronchitis. The chance of non smoker is relatively very low to get chronic bronchitis, but exposure in front of a smoker while smoking increases the chance of a non smoker to get the bronchitis. Besides the smoking, the pneumoconiosis can cause chronic bronchitis as well as long term inhalation.

Air pollution and toxin are very harmful and effect in great extent to get chronic bronchitis. Also some of the allergenic triggers are very dangerous for chronic bronchitis. Some of the infections can cause the diseases. The alpha1 antitrypsin deficiency can cause these dieses too. Occupational exposures like working in the dust of gold mine, coal mine, textile etc. might be very severe to get chronic bronchitis. Also the exposure to the harmful chemicals like cadmium is very dangerous for lungs.

People who works in such condition and maintain a smoking habit has far greater chance to get chronic bronchitis than average people or even average smokers. The constant exposure near the silica dust causes the silicosis which is a major turn out of many lung dieses. In some cases, the COPD is caused by the genetic factors. The genes can influence the strength of the lungs and makes it more vulnerable to smoking and other causes of chronic bronchitis.