What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Bronchiectasis?
The initial airway damage that leads to bronchiectasis often begins in childhood. However, signs and symptoms may not appear until months or even years after you start having repeated lung infections.
The most common signs and symptoms of bronchiectasis are:
- A daily cough that occurs over months or years
A cough is your body’s natural reflex to help clear your airways of irritants and prevent infection. Common irritants include smoke, mucus, or allergens such as pollen, mold, or dust. Some medical conditions or medicines irritate the nerve endings in your airways and cause coughing.
A cough may be acute, subacute, or chronic depending on how long it lasts. Acute coughs last less than three weeks and usually are caused by the common cold or other infections such as sinusitis or pneumonia. Subacute coughs last threeto eightweeks and remain after the initial cold or respiratory infection is over. Chronic coughs last more than eightweeks and can be caused by gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), postnasal drip from sinus infections or allergies, or chronic lung conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis, and interstitial lung diseases.
Your doctor will consider your medical history, physical exam, and test results when diagnosing and treating cough. Quitting smoking and avoiding smoke, other irritants, or certain medicines may help relieve your cough. Medicines to control coughing are usually used only for coughs that cause extreme discomfort or interfere with sleep. Talk to your doctor about how to treat your child’s cough.
- Daily production of large amounts of sputum (spit). Sputum, which you cough up and spit out, may contain mucus (a slimy substance), trapped particles, and pus.
- Shortness of breath and wheezing (a whistling sound when you breathe)
- Chest pain
- Clubbing (the flesh under your fingernails and toenails gets thicker)
If your doctor listens to your lungs with a stethoscope, he or she may hear abnormal lung sounds. Over time, you may have more serious symptoms. You may cough up blood or bloody mucus and feel very tired. Children may lose weight or not grow at a normal rate.
Complications of Bronchiectasis
Severe bronchiectasis can lead to other serious health conditions, such as respiratory failure and atelectasis. Respiratory (RES-pih-rah-tor-e) failure is a condition in which not enough oxygen passes from your lungs into your blood. Your body’s organs, such as your heart and brain, need oxygen-rich blood to work well. Respiratory failure also can occur if your lungs can’t properly remove carbon dioxide (a waste gas) from your blood. Too much carbon dioxide in your blood can harm your body’s organs. Both of these problems—a low oxygen level and a high carbon dioxide level in the blood—can occur at the same time. Diseases and conditions that affect your breathing can cause respiratory failure. Examples include COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) and spinal cord injuries. COPD prevents enough air from flowing in and out of the airways. Spinal cord injuries can damage the nerves that control breathing.
To understand respiratory failure, it helps to understand how the lungs work. When you breathe, air passes through your nose and mouth into your windpipe. The air then travels to your lungs’ air sacs. These sacs are called alveoli (al-VEE-uhl-eye). Small blood vessels called capillaries run through the walls of the air sacs. When air reaches the air sacs, the oxygen in the air passes through the air sac walls into the blood in the capillaries. At the same time, carbon dioxide moves from the capillaries into the air sacs. This process is called gas exchange. In respiratory failure, gas exchange is impaired. Respiratory failure can be acute (short term) or chronic (ongoing). Acute respiratory failure can develop quickly and may require emergency treatment. Chronic respiratory failure develops more slowly and lasts longer. Signs and symptoms of respiratory failure may include shortness of breath, rapid breathing, and air hunger (feeling like you can’t breathe in enough air). In severe cases, signs and symptoms may include a bluish color on your skin, lips, and fingernails; confusion; and sleepiness.
One of the main goals of treating respiratory failure is to get oxygen to your lungs and other organs and remove carbon dioxide from your body. Another goal is to treat the underlying cause of the condition. Acute respiratory failure usually is treated in an intensive care unit. Chronic respiratory failure can be treated at home or at a long-term care center. Respiratory failure is a condition in which not enough oxygen passes from your lungs into your blood. The condition also can occur if your lungs can’t properly remove carbon dioxide (a waste gas) from your blood. Respiratory failure can cause shortness of breath, rapid breathing, and air hunger (feeling like you can’t breathe in enough air). In severe cases, signs and symptoms may include a bluish color on your skin, lips, and fingernails; confusion; and sleepiness.
Atelectasis (at-uh-LEK-tuh-sis) is a condition in which one or more areas of your lungs collapse or don’t inflate properly. If only a small area or a few small areas of the lungs are affected, you may have no signs or symptoms. If a large area or several large areas of the lungs are affected, they may not be able to deliver enough oxygen to your blood. This can cause symptoms and complications. To understand atelectasis, it helps to understand how the lungs work. Your lungs are organs in your chest that allow your body to take in oxygen from the air. They also help remove carbon dioxide (a waste gas that can be toxic) from your body. When you breathe, air passes through your nose and mouth into your windpipe. The air then travels to your lungs’ air sacs. These sacs are called alveoli (al-VEE-uhl-eye). Small blood vessels called capillaries run through the walls of the air sacs. When air reaches the air sacs, the oxygen in the air passes through the air sac walls into the blood in the capillaries. At the same time, carbon dioxide moves from the capillaries into the air sacs. This process is called gas exchange. The air sacs must remain open and filled with air for this process to work right. Surfactant (sur-FAK-tant), a liquid that coats the inside of the lungs, helps the air sacs stay open. Deep breathing and coughing also help keep the air sacs open. (Coughing helps clear mucus and other substances from your airways.)
In atelectasis, part of the lung collapses or doesn’t inflate. The air sacs in that part of the lung are no longer filled with air. As a result, they can’t take part in gas exchange. If only a small area or a few small areas of the lungs are affected, you may have no signs or symptoms. This is because the rest of the lung can bring in enough oxygen to make up for the collapsed part of the lung. If atelectasis affects a large area or several large areas of the lungs, your body’s organs and tissues may not get enough oxygen-rich blood. Conditions and factors that keep the lungs from properly expanding and filling with air can cause atelectasis. For example, atelectasis is very common after surgery. The medicine used during surgery to temporarily put you to sleep can decrease or stop your normal effort to breathe and urge to cough. Sometimes, especially after chest or abdominal surgery, pain may keep you from wanting to take deep breaths. As a result, part of your lungs may collapse or not inflate right. If bronchiectasis is so advanced that it affects all parts of your airways, it may cause heart failure. Heart failure is a condition in which the heart can’t pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. The most common signs and symptoms of heart failure are shortness of breath or trouble breathing, tiredness, and swelling in the ankles, feet, legs, abdomen, and veins in the neck.
Source:
Recent Comments