How is emphysema detected

As the disease gets worse, your symptoms usually become more severe. They can include. Some people with emphysema get frequent respiratory infections such as colds and the flu. In severe cases, emphysema can cause weight loss, weakness in your lower muscles, and swelling in your ankles, feet, or legs. There is no cure for emphysema. However, treatments can help with symptoms, slow the progress of the disease, and improve your ability to stay active.

There are also treatments to prevent or treat complications of the disease. Treatments include. If you have emphysema, it's important to know when and where to get help for your symptoms. You should get emergency care if you have severe symptoms, such as trouble catching your breath or talking.

Call your health care provider if your symptoms are getting worse or if you have signs of an infection, such as a fever. Since smoking causes most cases of emphysema, the best way to prevent it is to not smoke. It's also important to try to avoid lung irritants such as secondhand smoke, air pollution, chemical fumes, and dusts.

The information on this site should not be used as a substitute for professional medical care or advice. Contact a health care provider if you have questions about your health. See, Play and Learn No links available. Resources Reference Desk Find an Expert. For You Patient Handouts. What is emphysema?

What causes emphysema? If you smoke, the single most effective treatment involves quitting smoking. Some people with emphysema may have areas of the lung that are more affected than others. The LVRS procedure removes up to 35 percent of the poorly functioning lung tissue from each lung. By removing this space-occupying tissue, the remaining relatively healthy lung tissue and surrounding muscles can work more efficiently. This allows for easier breathing and helps people with emphysema enjoy a better quality of life.

UPMC is one of the only hospitals in the United States approved to perform this life-enhancing procedure. At the Esophageal and Lung Surgery Institute, you have a team of medical specialists and allied professionals all in one location.

You must have stopped smoking for a minimum of four months to undergo preliminary testing for LVRS. A key factor in determining eligibility for LVRS involves undergoing careful medical risk assessment testing. These preliminary tests determine whether you are likely to survive the surgery and thrive after the operation. A lung transplant may represent an option for those with very advanced end stage disease or disabling emphysema symptoms.

This expertise allows us to accept many people as lung transplant candidates that other centers may decline. Your health information, right at your fingertips. Read the Latest. Causes of emphysema Smoking : Smoking tobacco products can contribute to the destruction of the tiny air sacs in your lungs alveoli. The more you smoke, the more likely you are to develop emphysema.

This is because airflow abnormalities are usually moderately advanced before they can be detected with a stethoscope! Chest X-ray. Chest x-rays are not very useful in assessing the patient with COPD. By the time the x-ray is clearly indicative of the disease, the neighbors usually know the diagnosis! However, the x-ray may show over-inflation of the lungs, which is common in emphysema.

X-rays are also valuable in finding other abnormalities such as shadows which may indicate coexisting lung cancer. Lung cancer and COPD often occur together because both are caused by smoking. The heart and the large vessels to and from the heart can also be seen on a chest x-ray and give some indication about associated heart strain, but only in advanced stages of disease. However, the chest x-ray can be completely normal, even when the patient has a significant degree of COPD.

The x-ray, though traditional, is not a good way of diagnosing or evaluating COPD. Electrocardiogram EKG. In very advanced disease, EKG abnormalities are usually evidence of strain in the right side of the heart, i. Sputum Examination. The common bacteria are well-known, and today physicians properly prescribe antibiotics based on their knowledge of the most common organisms and will do so if sputum increases in volume and becomes colored. Yellow or greenish sputum is almost always infected and requires antibiotics.

Measuring Lung Capacity. A simple device called a spirometer measures your lung capacity. During this test you take a deep breath, as deeply as you can, and blow it out all at once into a machine that records airflow and capacity.

The total amount of air blown out of fully inflated lungs is called the vital capacity. This test measures the useful size of your lungs. The rate of airflow tells how open the air passages are and how well the lungs can empty, or how well their elasticity is functioning. The lungs empty somewhat like an inflated balloon. Remember how a flabby or overused balloon empties slowly and incompletely?

This is a lot like the lung with emphysema. The airflow test is called the forced expiratory volume in one second, since this airflow is timed or measured over the first second of exhalation. The symbol for forced expiratory volume in one second is FEV1. These two numbers are somewhat similar to systolic and diastolic numbers in blood pressure readings. We believe that knowledge of FVC and FEV1 is as valuable and important to health promotion as knowledge of blood pressure.

This means that the person has to breathe harder to get enough oxygen. Complications of emphysema Complications of emphysema can include: pneumonia — this is an infection of the alveoli and bronchioles. People with emphysema are more prone to pneumonia collapsed lung — some lungs develop large air pockets bullae , which may burst, resulting in lung deflation also called pneumothorax heart problems — damaged alveoli, reduced number of capillaries and lower oxygen levels in the blood stream may mean that the heart has to pump harder to move blood through the lungs.

Over time, this can place considerable strain on the heart. Diagnosis of emphysema Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including emphysema, is diagnosed mainly using a lung function test called spirometry.

Other tests that may help in diagnosis of emphysema include: other lung function or breathing tests chest x-rays CT scans. Treatment for emphysema There is no cure for emphysema, although it is treatable. Management includes: stopping smoking immediately and completely — this is the most effective treatment for COPD and emphysema avoiding other air pollutants respiratory pulmonary rehabilitation programs oxygen treatment, in advanced cases medications such as anti-inflammatory medications medicine to widen the airways bronchodilators and loosen the phlegm antibiotics stress management techniques gentle, regular exercise to improve overall fitness influenza vaccination yearly and pneumococcal vaccination to protect against certain types of respiratory infection.

These programs: provide information and education on emphysema introduce people to a supervised exercise program proven to improve emphysema symptoms improve lung function through specific breathing exercises teach stress management techniques offer advice on adapting to life with emphysema provide emotional support through shared experiences.

Oxygen treatment for emphysema If a person with emphysema is found to have exceptionally low levels of oxygen in their blood, they will be given oxygen to use at home. Give feedback about this page. Was this page helpful? Yes No. View all lungs. Related information.