Respiratory disease names

Common clinical respiratory diseases are mainly divided into five categories based on the location of onset, causative factors, and course of disease: upper respiratory tract infections, lower respiratory tract infections, airway obstruction, interstitial lung disease, and respiratory malignant tumors. They correspond to hundreds of subdivided diseases such as the common cold, pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, pulmonary fibrosis, and lung cancer. It is one of the categories with the most complex disease types among all disease classifications and the most common misunderstandings among the public.

Last week when I went out to the clinic, I met a little girl who had just finished her college entrance examination. After blowing the air conditioner all night, her throat hurt like swallowing a knife in the morning, and her nose kept running clear. My body temperature was measured at 37.8°C, and there were no signs of bacterial infection in the blood test. It was the most common acute nasopharyngitis - what we people often call the common cold, which is a typical upper respiratory tract infection. This type of lesions are concentrated in the nose, pharynx, and larynx. In addition to colds, the commonly heard acute tonsillitis, herpetic angina, and acute laryngitis are all classified here. Regarding the need to use antibiotics for upper respiratory tract infections, there are actually quite a lot of differences in opinions in different diagnosis and treatment scenarios: the respiratory department guidelines of tertiary hospitals clearly require that when there is no evidence of bacterial infection such as elevated white blood cells and coughing up yellow purulent sputum, there is no need to use antibiotics at all and you can heal yourself by relying on your own immunity. ； However, many primary diagnosis and treatment institutions will empirically prescribe antibiotics for about 3 days based on the severity of the patient's symptoms and basic constitution. This is mainly because they are afraid of secondary bacterial infections in the elderly and children with weak resistance. However, it cannot be said that the drugs are used indiscriminately.

If you feel chest pain when coughing, the sputum spit out turns green and yellow, and you even have a fever of 39°C that cannot be suppressed by taking antipyretics, then there is a high probability that the inflammation has traveled down the throat and invaded the trachea, bronchi, and lung parenchyma, which is what we call lower respiratory tract infections. When mycoplasma pneumonia was prevalent last winter, a parent of a fourth grade primary school child came over and said that the child had been coughing for almost 20 days, and taking cephalosporin and amoxicillin did not help. The mycoplasma antibody titer was checked at 1:160, and the diagnosis was mycoplasma pneumonia. After three courses of treatment with azithromycin, the child was cured. In addition to mycoplasma pneumonia, this type of disease also includes bacterial pneumonia, viral pneumonia, acute bronchitis, etc. The most controversial treatment is the use of hormones: the mainstream view is that mild to moderate patients do not need to use hormones at all and can recover with anti-infective treatment. ； However, for severe patients who have developed lung consolidation and whose blood oxygen continues to be lower than 95%, many clinicians will recommend short-term use of low-dose hormones to quickly control inflammation and avoid subsequent sequelae such as airway hyperresponsiveness. There is currently a lot of clinical data to support the safety of this solution.

After talking about the acute ones, let’s talk about the chronic respiratory diseases that many old smokers cannot avoid. The most common ones are airway obstruction. COPD and bronchial asthma fall into this category. Uncle Zhang, who lives downstairs in my house, has been smoking for 32 years. In the past two years, he had to take two breaks to climb the third floor. He couldn't stop coughing when the cold wind blew. When he went to check his lung function, he found that the FEV1/FVC ratio was only 62%, which is the standard for moderate COPD. Also when catkins are flying in the spring and sycamore hairs are falling in the autumn, we can encounter many young people holding their chests and wheezing in the clinic. Most of them suffer from allergic asthma. At least half of the asthma patients I have come into contact with believe that "if you don't have asthma, you don't need to take medication." This is actually the biggest misunderstanding - patients who regularly use inhaled corticosteroids can reduce the probability of acute attacks by more than 60%. Oh, by the way, there is a lot of controversy about the desensitization treatment of asthma. Some scholars believe that it is necessary to adhere to standard treatment for more than 3 years to obtain long-term benefits. There are also clinical studies showing that some patients with hyposensitivity who are only allergic to a single allergen can achieve long-term relief with 1.5 years of standard desensitization, and do not need to endure the full 3 years.

There is another type of disease that everyone has heard less about, but the prognosis is generally not good, which is interstitial lung disease, including silicosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. I met an older brother who worked in stone processing before. He had never worn a dust mask in his 12 years of work. In the past six months, he started to breathe when he walked a little faster. A CT scan showed ground glass shadows and grid shadows in both lungs. He was diagnosed with silicosis, which is an occupational interstitial lung disease. The current mainstream treatment plan for this type of disease is to use anti-fibrotic drugs to delay the progression of the disease. There are also many medical institutions doing clinical research on stem cell transplantation, but the effectiveness is still in the verification stage. I generally advise patients not to blindly follow the trend and try unmarketed treatment plans. It is most important to keep up with standard basic treatment first.

The last thing I want to talk about is the respiratory malignant tumors that everyone is most afraid of. Laryngeal cancer and lung cancer both fall into this category. Nowadays, low-dose chest CT is popular, and many physical examinations will detect pulmonary nodules. If you take the report and ask in a panic whether you have lung cancer, there is no need to scare yourself. More than 80% of clinically detected pulmonary nodules are benign, and regular follow-up is enough. Regarding whether ground glass nodules should be resected, different departments now have different opinions: Most thoracic surgeons believe that if the nodules have solid components and poor shape, they should be resected early to avoid malignant transformation. ； Most respiratory doctors will recommend that ground-glass nodules smaller than 8 mm and with uniform density be followed up for 3-6 months. If there is no change, continue observation to avoid excessive medical treatment. Both options are actually reasonable, and it mainly depends on the patient's personal wishes.

In fact, there is really no need to blindly read the names of these diseases. If you really have a sore throat, cough, or shortness of breath, go to the respiratory department of a regular hospital as soon as possible. Don't make a diagnosis for yourself after checking Baidu. It is just a common cold. It is not worth it to suddenly scare you into anxiety.