Talk:Emphysema

message: An explanation with more common terms would be appreciated. The medical terms and sentence structure make it difficult for an undereducated individual, like myself, to learn about the disease especially when suffering.174.17.206.161 (talk)
:Sadly, this is a very typical problem with most, if not all, Wikipedia articles dealing with scientific or technical topics. Captain Quirk (talk) 09:43, 24 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Heading

message: The second paragraph needs work. I'm not sure what the second sentence is trying to say. --Jose Ramos 13:07, 11 Oct 2003 (UTC)
thread_title: Work needed on article

message: Emphysema sufferers are not blue bloaters. Blue bloaters describes another chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, chronic bronchitis. Emphysema sufferers are called "pink puffers". That is they hyperventilate. Alternatively, because they hyperventilate, emphysema sufferers  are able to maintain adequate blood pH levels: they are not cyanotic, which would suggest a low blood oxygen level. In bronchitis, there is a disproportionate loss of perfusion versus ventilation (ie. blood passing through the capillaries surround an alveolus which has no air supply due to a blocked bronchiole, will shunt into the pulmonary veins without picking up oxygen.) so even if people with bronchitis hyperventilate (up their tidal volume by breathing more) they will be unable to maintain adequate blood oxygen levels; so people with bronchitis, and not emphysema, will appear cyanotic. This is where the term "blue bloaters" comes from. "Pink puffers" and "blue older bloaters" are not deregatory terms, but are actually mnemonics. They help physicians tell the emphysema apart from bronchitis. It should also be noted that a patient can (and often does) suffer from both emphysema and bronchitis. Both conditions are initiated by an inflammatory response due to some sort of irritating or damaging substance enterying the conducting pathways and/or alveoli (ie. cigarette smoke, pollution, etc) Cigarette smoke paralyzes the action of cilia prevent the removal bacteria or other debris which may have been trapped in the airway. Trapped bacteria, can multiply within the conducting airways, and start an infection. Multiple infections lead to thicking of the tissue in the conducting pathways as well as secretion of excess mucus. These physiological responses can "plug" up airways (usually bronchioles) leading to bronchitis. In emphysema, constant inflammation results in destructive molecules being released within the alveoli. These molecules can damage the alveoli, causing the supporting structures of the alveoli to break down (including capillaries). This break down results in large, distended alveolus, that have a smaller surface area, and a weaker ability to take up oxygen from the lungs.
:Well, if you think so you may edit the article accordingly! 
JFW | T@lk 
07:30, 15 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Blue bloaters vs. pink puffers

message: There's no mention of Centrilobar, Panlobar or Septal emphysema in this article. What's that all about...?
Rutigor
:Be bold and put it in. If you know the terminology then you probably know the relevance of each. JFW | T@lk 08:57, 28 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Types of Emphysema

message: Ok, guys, put this in your pipe and smoke it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3329103.stm
A study in the European Respiritory Journal shows that increased vitamin A consumption can return elasticity to alveoli in emphysemic mice.  It may not be so "irreversible" after all.
On the one hand, I don't want to justify smoking (I just quit myself).  But on the other hand, if there there is any treatment that's even possibly effective, it should be posted.  So I'm going to do that.
:If that has not been replicated in humans I wouldn't attach too much importance to it. Well done for quitting - it's the most important thing you could have done for your own & others' health. JFW | T@lk 07:18, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Sounds great! Glad you quit. Not starting, however, is the best method of prevention by far. Smoking is going the way of the Dinosaurs and I can't wait until it becomes illegal someday. I smoked for almost 8 years now and completely regret doing so. While I don't have any immediate life-threatening conditions, I do wish I had never began smoking as there is nothing to gain from it. There's no gain but there's plenty to lose. One of the worst things a person can do is to choose to learn for themselves through experience (by smoking) rather than observing others and the mistakes they've already made. --Ulterion (talk) 01:27, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Vitamin A - possible reversal of disease

message: suggests that in tobacco-induced emphysema there is autoimmune anti-elastin activity. JFW | T@lk 07:18, 15 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Autoimmune process

message: Removed Jessica Caroline Lunn from "notable cases". A Google search on the name only brought up 4 listings, two of which were this Wikipedia article. 68.62.15.243 13:22, 11 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It's since been restored, so I removed it again. Very odd - the only other references to someone of this name are on other wiki-type sites that typically use Wikipedia as their source. Also, the reference provided after her name led to an unrelated article about Amy Winehouse suffering from emphysema. Ravenclaw (talk) 12:59, 3 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  `Jessica Caroline Lunn' 

message: Ike Turner Zeroxysm (talk) 19:11, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Added to Notable Cases section

message: Molecular pathophysiology  JFW | T@lk 11:18, 3 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Review on mechanism 

message: :"Many sufferers whose emphysema was caused by cigarette smoke have cigarette stains on the fingers."
This is not a symptom of emphysema. Tar stains wash off over time, surely? It's not relevant to the article: smokers who develop emphysema and then quit smoking will not have tar stains on their fingers. --<SPAN STYLE="font-family:monospace; color:#008800; background-color:#ffffcc; border:1px solid #ff4444;"> B.D.Mills </SPAN> (T, C) 04:54, 27 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cigarette stains? 

message: I think the article would be improved with some expansion to the section on Pathophysiology.  The serpinopathy section of another article claims that "Well characterised serpinopathies include emphysema, cirrhosis, thrombosis and dementia." and provides a citation.  I suspect there may be other causes as well, but was surprised to find this article mentioning nothing on it at all about the serpin connection that has apparently now been established.N2e (talk) 19:08, 19 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The serpinopathy article actually says that it only applies to A1AD emphysema. 174.252.243.214 (talk) 06:22, 11 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Another "Cause" to consider for the Pathophysiology section 

message: This emphysema article lists finger clubbing as a symptom, but the linked finger clubbing article notes that finger clubbing is not caused by COPDs (of which emphysema is one--according to this article).
I'm no expert, so I don't know which page needs a correction.
Barry (talk) 13:16, 4 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Inconsistency? 

message: To the untrained eye (that's me, and most other WP readers), the X-ray is uninformative. Could someone appropriately trained point out the features of the image that confirm the diagnosis? Cheers freestyle-69 (talk) 22:38, 11 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I endorse the above.  What is the arrow pointing to? CowardX10 (talk) 17:00, 8 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  X-ray caption needed 

message: If anyone would like to take the time to work it into the article, the discovery of lung stem cells was announced on 7-11-11. The article can be found here: http://news.yahoo.com/discovery-lung-stem-cells-may-herald-treatments-210407141.html . I tried to post but some well meaning doctor reverted my edits and I'm really not looking to become a skilled Wikipedian tonight, as he seems to be asking.
Same goes for my attempt to add Dick York and Johnny CarsonLongtime host of ‘Tonight Show’ dies at 79 Associated Press, February 8, 2005Net mourns death of Johnny Carson Jeff Pelline CNET News February 8, 2005 to the Notable Causes list. Reverted by the doc. Both of their Wikipedia articles mention death by emphysema. If you know your way around and can post these "the right way", please do. 174.252.246.3 (talk) 03:13, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Here is the paper on lung stem cells    The problem with new sources like yahoo news is that so much is just speculation. Have added Carson. There is no ref on the Wiki page for Dick. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 03:47, 12 July 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lung stem cells; York and Carson 

message: New study's findings on emphysema reversal  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fisiks (talk • contribs) 20:37, 31 October 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  More good news for possible cure? 

message: Based on the 2013 GOLD document  and this 2012 Lancet review  emphysemia is simply a pathological finding in COPD. It is not a disease in and of itself. As the treatment, diagnosis and pathophysiology all overlap I have merged this article into COPD (which was much better referenced than this one). Doc James (talk · contribs · email) (if I write on your page reply on mine) 03:18, 24 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: It is indeed not a disease in and of itself, so I think it was a good thing to merge content from the previous version of this article into COPD. The term emphysema, however, has other implications than what is related to the lungs, so I now redirected the term to Pneumatosis. Still, I made sure that the first section of that article explains its relationship to COPD. Mikael Häggström (talk) 13:07, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Merged to COPD

message: Page made from split of content on Pneumatosis page - Emphysema covers much more than that just related to COPD. On COPD page it is referred to without either its own section or detail.--Iztwoz (talk) 09:57, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
thread_title: Content split

message: In the article it currently states "emphysema is a major subtype of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)", and very shortly after that it states "Without COPD, the finding of emphysema on a CT lung scan still confers a higher mortality risk in tobacco smokers.",  if emphysema is a subtype of COPD, how is emphysema without COPD possible?  I'm confused Hammerfrog (talk) 17:25, 14 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: As text says - when associated with limited airflow it is a subtype of COPD.  And in Symptoms there is -  The shortness of breath caused by emphysema can increase over time and develop into chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Iztwoz (talk) 14:38, 7 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is emphysema a subtype of COPD or not?