Emphysema
air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues
Emphysema is a condition of the lung marked by abnormal enlargement of the alveoli with loss of pulmonary elasticity. Most commonly, emphysema refers to the permanent enlargement of air spaces (alveoli) in the lungs, and is also known as pulmonary emphysema.
Emphysema is a lower respiratory tract disease, characterised by enlarged air-filled spaces in the lungs, that can vary in size and may be very large. The spaces are caused by the breakdown of the walls of the alveoli, which replace the spongy lung tissue. This reduces the total alveolar surface available for gas exchange leading to a reduction in oxygen supply for the blood. Emphysema usually affects the middle aged or older population because it takes time to develop with the effects of tobacco smoking and other risk factors. Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency is a genetic risk factor that may lead to the condition presenting earlier.
When associated with significant airflow limitation, emphysema is a major subtype of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a progressive lung disease characterized by long-term breathing problems and poor airflow. Without COPD, the finding of emphysema on a CT lung scan still confers a higher mortality risk in tobacco smokers. In 2016 in the United States there were 6,977 deaths from emphysema – 2.2 per 100,000 people.
The public source identifies “Emphysema” as air-filled enlargement in the body's tissues. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Emphysema, air-filled and enlargement.
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This entry incorporates text from “Emphysema” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.