# Chronic Bronchitis --- **Chronic bronchitis** is a condition that is a part of [[COPD]] where the [[bronchi]] in the lungs are consistently inflamed and full of mucous, which causes an obstruction of airflow. It is usually caused by constant (or near constant) exposure to some sort of irritant in the air, which can be from air pollution to occupational exposure to smoke (from smoking or wildfires, etc.) The hypersecretion of mucous can cause a "mucus plugging" which can gums up the [[cilia]], which is supposed to move *out* the mucus and irritants. The constant inflammation can also cause a thickening of the walls of the bronchi or the alveoli, which means the macrophages that live there are damaged or pushed out. This harms the lung's defenses and makes a person really susceptible to [[respiratory infection]]. Chronic bronchitis results hypoxemia, which leads to reactive vasoconstriction in the lungs. This leads to chronic pulmonary hypertension, and as with anything that makes the heart work harder to send blood to lungs, this can cause [[heart failure|cor pulmonale]]. The hypoxemia also results in secondary [[polycythemia]]. ![[chronic bronchitis.png]] ## Risk Factors - [[smoking]] - [[obesity]] - prolonged exposure to irritants in the air - occupational hazards - wildfires - pollution ## Signs & Symptoms - chronic, productive cough - purulent sputum - hemoptysis (blood in saliva) - crackles and wheezes - prolonged expiration - cyanosis - hypoxemia - peripheral edema - due to [[heart failure|cor pulmonale]] ___