pulmonary disease (COPD), a diverse group of clinical syndromes that share the common feature of limitation of expiratory airflow (Devine, 2008).

CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER:

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a long term progressive respiratory disease characterized by inflammation and severe limitation of airflow in and out of the lungs. COPD is a nonspecific umbrella term that encompasses a variety of pulmonary diseases, the main three being chronic bronchitis, emphysema and asthma I COPD (Mannino, 2002). It is characterized by airflow limitation due to the gradual loss of effective breathing. At first no symptoms or mild symptoms are present however as the disease progresses, shortness of breath, wheezing, chest tightness, ongoing (chronic) cough often with a lot of mucous occurs. As it worsens, breathing requires much more energy and it can get harder to complete simple activities or to exercise, this may lead to fatigue, weight loss and muscle loss. Exacerbations and comorbidities contribute to the overall severity of the disease to individual patients. Patients present with common problems like dyspnoea(laboured breathing), chronic cough and sputum production. Some less common symptoms include wheezing and chest tightness. Risk factors include smoking, air pollution, low birth weight, recurrent infections and low economic status.

Chronic Bronchitis is defined as an inflammatory change leading to muscularly dysfunction and increased goblet cell secretion and numbers. This damage inside the airways causes the lining to swell thicken. The combination of bronchoconstriction and mucus hyper secretion causes a persistent cough to develop in bronchitis as the body tries to expel this excessive mucus. The airway constriction and mucus leads to wheezing typically heard during expiration. When airway obstruction is occurring, alveolar hypoxia may also be occurring because oxygen is not getting through to the alveoli efficiently. Some symptoms include
an ongoing cough, shortness of breath and frequent respiratory infections.