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Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Paper

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Abstract COPD is an important disease to be informed about because it affects millions of people. This paper discusses signs and symptoms, treatments, abnormalities you may find, as well as many of interesting things about COPD. Being informed about COPD can also possibly decrease your chances of developing the disease.
COPD
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that makes it difficult to breathe. To understand this disease, it’s important to know how breathing should occur. When you breathe, air follows down your windpipe into tubes in your lungs called bronchial tubes or airways. Your bronchial tubes then branch into thousands of smaller tubes called bronchioles, which end in tiny round air sacs called alveoli. Capillaries run through the walls of the alveoli and when air reaches them, …show more content…

He or she will also look at the results of spirometry, lung volume and diffusing capacity tests, which can indicate the presence and severity of COPD as well as help determine the prognosis” (COPD, 2015). A chest X-ray might show an increased air volume in the lungs and an enlargement of the central pulmonary artery, which connects the heart’s right ventricle to the lungs. Also, changes are occasionally visible as abnormalities in the electrical activity of the heart, measured with an ECG. (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, 2013). The prognosis of COPD is variable, depending on how bad the COPD is. “Some people with very mild COPD, if they can stop smoking and they can take of themselves, shouldn’t have any shortened life expectancy” (Rodriguez & Sohrabi, 2015). Those with moderate to severe COPD or who developed the disease at an earlier age tend to have more issues as they grow older. By taking a proactive approach and being open to asking for help and support, you can effectively manage COPD (Rodrigues & Sohrabi,

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