[Definition of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].

Abstract excerpt

COPD is a disease manifested by a combination of chronic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema. The main risk factors of COPD are chronic smoking and genetic dispositions. The current definition of COPD was established in Western countries in the late 1960s and 1970s, but in Japan COPD has long been used as a term for a physiological syndrome showing chronic obstructive airway symptoms including not only chronic...

Topics

• Bronchitis
• Genetic Predisposition to Disease
• Humans
• Japan
• Lung Diseases, Obstructive
• Pulmonary Emphysema
• Risk Factors
• Smoking