6,502
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Recurrent Airway Obstruction (view source)
Revision as of 13:05, 26 August 2010
, 13:05, 26 August 2010→Pathology
[[Image:COPD.jpg|right|thumb|100px|<small><center>COPD (Image sourced from Bristol Biomed Image Archive with permission)</center></small>]]
[[Image:COPD.jpg|right|thumb|100px|<small><center>COPD (Image sourced from Bristol Biomed Image Archive with permission)</center></small>]]
[[Image:COPD scanning micrograph.jpg|right|thumb|100px|<small><center>COPD scanning electron micrograph (Image sourced from Bristol Biomed Image Archive with permission)</center></small>]]
[[Image:COPD scanning micrograph.jpg|right|thumb|100px|<small><center>COPD scanning electron micrograph (Image sourced from Bristol Biomed Image Archive with permission)</center></small>]]
Recurrent airway obstruction is classically described as a bronchiolitis but both functional and pathological changes can also be observed in the larger airways [30,39,40]. In the bronchioles, there is plugging by mucus and accumulation of neutrophils in the airway lumen. Other inflammatory cells including lymphocytes, monocytes, and occasionally eosinophils are found in large numbers in peribronchial connective tissue. There is mucus metaplasia in the bronchiolar epithelium, thickening of the airway smooth muscle, mucus flooding of adjacent alveoli, and peribronchial fibrosis [31,50]. All these changes provide evidence of chronic inflammation. The pathological changes in SPAOD and RAO are similar [51]. The older term for RAO was pulmonary emphysema and this term is still used in some parts of the world. Even though the lungs are usually hyperinflated on post-mortem examination, hyperinflation is a result of gas trapping which is a consequence of peripheral airway obstruction rather than being due to alveolar emphysema.
==Treatment==
==Treatment==