Young and still active men, who have been smoking for a long time and have earned themselves chronic bronchitis of a smoker, strongly demand an explanation from me.
They don't like the prospect of getting pulmonary embolism in their blooming age. There is a suspicion that I am misleading them in order to discourage men from smoking in such a mean way.
Guys, smoking or not smoking is your own business. Here we considered the situation when people with chronic bronchitis were admitted to the hospital with an exacerbation. Otherwise, how would they find this thromboembolism? To diagnose thromboembolism, expensive modern tomographs and scanners are needed.
Here we are talking about people who have not just smoked for a long time, but have already managed to turn their chronic bronchitis into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. It takes decades.
This disease is called obstructive because it always causes shortness of breath. More or less, but always.
So, if an exacerbation occurs, that the diseased bronchi swell, fill with viscous purulent sputum and further restrict the flow of oxygen. These people don't just cough. They freeze and gasp for air. Due to immobility, their blood stagnates in the legs, and the risk of thromboembolism increases.
That is, a blood clot forms in the legs, and then flies up into the lungs. It turns out that the air does not reach the lungs because of bronchitis, and the blood that could pick up these pitiful remnants of oxygen does not reach either. Double joy.
An additional risk factor for thromboembolism is age. And exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which require hospitalization, are just in older people. That is, to fall ill with shortness of breath, it was necessary to cultivate this bronchitis for 20 years.
Convinced?
