Today is World COPD Day. Also called “smoker’s bronchitis” or COPD, it concerns three and a half million people in France. But two thirds of them do not know their diagnosis.
Coughing upon awakening when a smoker is normal for many. In fact, it may hide a more serious problem, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) also called smoker’s bronchitis. A disease little known to smokers, as Armine Izadifar, pulmonologist and president of the association of pulmonologists of Ile de France explains: “The first symptom is the morning cough, but people often underestimate the symptoms, or the disease is very progressive. “
Insidious shortness of breath
From a few bronchitis each year to crippling respiratory failure on a daily basis, with shortness of breath on exertion, the disease progresses slowly. But, it struggles to be detected today. Only a third of patients know their diagnosis. So you just have to see if you are more out of breath than someone your age when you are making a physical effort, such as climbing stairs.
“General practitioners are sometimes poorly sensitized, patients can consult them several times during the winter for what they believe to be recurrent bronchitis, and as shortness of breath on exertion is difficult to quantify in consultation, the diagnosis is not necessarily mentioned when in reality it is already a COPD ”, underlines the pulmonologist.
Extend screening
Today, smokers from the age of 40, and smokers from the age of 45, are prescribed an EFR, for respiratory functional exploration, a test which allows to evaluate the respiratory function and to detect an early obstruction of the bronchi. The recommendation of professionals is to pass a test for all smokers, whatever the age, from 20 packs per year for a man, and 15 for a woman.
Because the disease presents significant risks: repeated bronchial secondary infections, hospitalizations, shortness of breath on exertion which is accentuated. The decline in respiratory function is very difficult to reverse, hence the importance of acting early. “The first instinct is to stop smoking, then with drug treatments, physical activity or even respiratory physiotherapy, we can improve things. I have patients who live almost normally today, ”adds Armine Izadifar.
Evaluate the breath
One of the solutions to improve screening: equip all general practitioners with a spirometer, which tests the breath. “If the test shows the slightest disorder, then it is necessary to go further with an EFR test at a pulmonologist, to see if it is indeed a COPD. An experiment is being carried out in this direction by the Health Insurance which has equipped and trained volunteer general practitioners in 3 French regions.
COPD affects three and a half million people and, today, 15,000 deaths are linked to the disease in France.
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