Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. In this article I will talk about obstructive bronchitis, which actually does not exist.
After the article about obstructive bronchitis, there were more comments from mothers of sick children. They believe that children cannot have such obstructive bronchitis because children do not smoke.
I explain. Neither children nor adults have obstructive bronchitis. Suddenly? Read on.
My article on obstructive bronchitis applies to adults. It was a review of a stupid article from a nearby channel. There was a lie that was unhealthy. I hate such things and immediately write a review.
Now in adults, instead of obstructive bronchitis, they write in the diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They combined neglected cases of chronic bronchitis, bronchial asthma and pulmonary emphysema, which are necessarily manifested by obstruction.
Obstruction is a narrowing of the bronchi that makes it difficult for air to enter the lungs. If there is no obstruction but the diagnosis of COPD is not made.
COPD is the lot of older people. It takes years and decades to form.
Why did I call COPD obstructive bronchitis in the last article?
For three reasons:
- An author from a nearby channel called something obstructive bronchitis. I had to explain it something.
- It was about the outcome of chronic bronchitis, but not asthma or emphysema.
- There are a lot of mature readers who were diagnosed with obstructive bronchitis even before COPD became fashionable. They know this COPD precisely as obstructive bronchitis.
Once again: if a person coughed for 3 months a year for two years in a row, then this is chronic bronchitis. If after 15 years he developed an obstruction that could not be completely removed with drugs, then this is COPD.
Obstructive bronchitis in children
He's gone. The same as obstructive bronchitis in adults.
That is, if we, doctors, wanted to make a diagnosis, then this diagnosis should be in the International Classification of Diseases. But there is no diagnosis of obstructive bronchitis. There is bronchitis. So the children will be diagnosed with bronchitis.
And what does the obstruction have to do with it?
In children, any obstruction of the airways is very pronounced. The smaller the human lungs, the easier it becomes obstruction, and the louder it sounds.
Visings
Obstruction is very common in children from a viral infection. The bronchi swell and spasm. Obstruction with wheezing appears. So this thing is called: "virus-induced wheezing". Or virus-induced bronchitis. Sometimes it is called wheezing (from English wheezing - wheezing).
The acute bronchitis that we all suffer from is referred to as a common cold. That is, it is more likely to be caused by viruses. Virus-induced is caused by viruses.
In fact, anyone after a cold can have bronchospasm. Therefore, if a person needs to provide spirometry (measure the function of external respiration) for a routine medical examination, then it is better not to do this within 1.5 months after a cold. Because bronchospasm can be found and cannot be distinguished from bronchial asthma.
When i was younger
Then I was doing science and doing spirometry to a lot of people. It turned out that bronchospasm can be found in 20% of people with cough. But so many bronchial asthma does not exist. It was the same bronchospasm after a viral infection.
That's about a similar story with children. Viruses often obstruct them. Obstruction is manifested by wheezing. It cannot be distinguished from bronchial asthma. Therefore, if your child is found to have obstruction during a cold, they will treat it like asthma.
By school age, it will become clear whether this was an obstruction from a virus or is it still asthma. Sometimes pediatricians and parents are afraid to call asthma asthma and invent all sorts of "obstructive bronchitis" or "bronchitis with an obstructive component", but the meaning is always the same - this is bronchospasm, which may well be asthma. During a cold, it will be treated like asthma and the obstruction episodes will be expected to pass by school age.
Is that clearer?
If you liked the article, then like it and subscribe to my channel. Check out my articles on related topics:
Lies about obstructive bronchitis
Dangerous lies about bronchial asthma
How to behave outdoors if you have asthma
