Subjective clinical impression of COPD
As in all medical conditions, the diagnosis of COPD is the combination of subjective clinical impression with objective observations. Spirometry is the primary objective test, and is fundamental to making a confident diagnosis of COPD.
Consider a diagnosis of COPD in patients who are:
Patients typically present with a combination of signs and symptoms of cough, worsening breathlessness, progressive exercise intolerance, productive cough, wheeze and repeated chest infections. Smokers are more susceptible to prolonged complicated infections due to histopathological and immunological changes in their respiratory tract, and therefore there is increasing evidence implicating viral infections of the respiratory tract to underlying COPD.
As in all medical conditions, the diagnosis of COPD is the combination of subjective clinical impression with objective observations. Spirometry is the primary objective test, and is fundamental to making a confident diagnosis of COPD.
Consider a diagnosis of COPD in patients who are:
Patients typically present with a combination of signs and symptoms of cough, worsening breathlessness, progressive exercise intolerance, productive cough, wheeze and repeated chest infections. Smokers are more susceptible to prolonged complicated infections due to histopathological and immunological changes in their respiratory tract, and therefore there is increasing evidence implicating viral infections of the respiratory tract to underlying COPD.