Lecture 5: COPD Flashcards
What are the two pathophysiologic categories of COPD?
- Chronic bronchitis
- Emphysema
What symptoms are characteristic of COPD?
- Dyspnea
- Cough
- Sputum production
- Airflow obstruction
How common is COPD?
- > 10 million in the US
- > 120k deaths annually
- 4th leading cause of death
High burden due to high resource utilization
What are the key physiologic markers of COPD?
- Airflow obstruction
- Extensive airway destruction
What disease is characterized primarily by alveolar destruction in COPD?
Emphysema
What disease is characterized by increased sputum production and obstruction of more central airways in COPD?
Chronic bronchitis
What is a blue bloater usually describing?
Obese male that is constantly coughing.
What does a classic emphysema patient look like?
- Barrel chest
- Older and thinner
- Hyperinflated diaphragm with flattened diaphragms.
- Quiet chest
- Severe dyspnea
What is the clinical diagnosis criteria for chronic bronchitis?
- Daily productive cough > 3+ months
- Must be in at least 2 consecutive years
What is the diagnostic criteria for emphysema?
Permanent enlargement and destruction of airspaces distal to terminal bronchioles.
Does not require a CXR, but CXR will be noticeably abnormal.
How does mild COPD often present on PE?
- Usually normal
- Maybe prolonged expiration or faint-end expiratory wheeze with forced expiration.
How does moderate/severe COPD typically present on PE?
- Lung hyperinflation (via percussion)
- Decreased breath sounds, wheezes (bilateral)
- Crackles at lung bases (bilateral)
- Distant heart sounds
- Increased AP diameter (closer to 1:1)
How do end-stage COPD patients typically present?
- Tripodding + calloused elbows
- Accessory muscle use
- Pursed lips
- Hoover’s sign (lower intercostal space retraction during inspiration)
- Cyanosis
- Nail clubbing (rare)
What are the abnormal PE findings most characteristic of chronic bronchitis?
- Coarse rhonchi/wheezing
- Hepatomegaly
- Increased JVP
- Peripheral edema
Suggestive of R-sided HF
What are the abnormal PE findings most characteristic of emphysema?
- Expiration with pursed lips
- Hyperresonant percussion
- Wheezing, rales
Who gets screened for COPD?
- 1 of the 3 cardinal symptoms.
- OR
- Gradual decline in activities with risk factors for COPD.
- CAPTURE questionnaire. (2-4 = clinically significant)
Cardinal symptoms:
Dyspnea
Sputum volume
Sputum production
What does COPD look like on spirometry in regards to BD administration?
COPD is defined by irreversible or partially reversible but limited airflow.
What labs/diagnostics are recommended in a patient with COPD?
- Pulse ox every visit
- CBC, BMP (or CMP), TSH, BNP/NT-proBNP, serum alpha-1-antitrypsin
- CXR (not required to diagnose COPD)
What PFT findings suggest obstructive disease?
- FVC > 80%
- FEV1/FVC < 0.7
- OR
- FVC < 80% with TLC > 80%
AKA they either breath out very slowly or they cant breath out a lot in general even though their lung capacity is fine overall.
When should DLco be considered in PFT testing?
- Severe FEV1
- Resting O2 <= 92%
- Exertional hypoxemia < 90% on 6MWT
- Severe dyspnea (mMRC >= 2)
Mainly to assess severity of emphysema.
Lower DLco decreases in proportion to severity of disease
What are ABGs specifically used for?
- Determining pH levels
- Determining metabolic vs respiratory acidosis/alkalosis
- Determining compensation for above
In COPD, what generally becomes elevated in ABGs the worse the COPD?
pCO2 should increase.
Worsening pO2.
What does negative base excess suggest on ABG? Positive?
- Negative = metabolic acidosis
- Positive = metabolic alkalosis
When is a CXR indicated for COPD workup?
- Dyspnea/cough etiology unknown
- R/o complicating process during acute exacerbations
- Comorbidity evaluation
What is characteristic of emphysema on CXR?
- Hyperinflation
- Flattened diaphragm
- Increased retrosternal air space
- Long, narrow heart shadow
How is COPD staged?
Global initiative for COPD (GOLD)
What is GOLD severity determined by and how many stages are there?
- Gold 1: Mild with FEV1 >= 80%
- Gold 2: Moderate with FEV1 50-80%
- Gold 3: Severe with FEV1 30-50%
- Gold 4: Very severe with FEV1 < 30%
Requires spirometry
What are the two ways to assess symptoms for COPD staging?
- mMRC: severity of breathlessness (0-4)
- CAT: assess multitude of symptoms present (0-40)