COPD vs. Asthma (Nursing)

00:00 Now COPD and asthma have some overlap so I want you to be kind of familiar with that, that there's an asthma-COPD overlap syndrome. So some patients have this bronchial inflammation that we see both in asthma and in chronic bronchitis or emphysema. So, they're going to have some symptoms that are very similar. Now it's characterized by this persistent airflow limitation. That means happens more than just a short-term event and you have this persistence, hangs around a while and airflow that's not able to get in and out as it would in a normal airway. Now there are several features that are usually associated with asthma and several features that are usually associated with COPD that they have overlap. That's why they identified in clinical practice by features that it shares with both asthma and COPD. So there's a consensus statement from the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease and the Science Committee. So, you've got this information, you can take a look at it if you want to and I've got the website address for you there. But just as a big overarching concept, you're going to have similar symptoms in some of asthma and COPD characteristics and that's why they talk about the overlap between the 2 diseases. Now, airflow obstructions. Asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema have interrelationships and that's really the takeaway point. Now, when it's not COPD, if a patient has asthma but their airflow obstruction is reversible that's the difference. So if patient has chronic bronchitis or emphysema or both but doesn't have airflow obstruction, they don't have the overlap.