Well, the reason you have not found a clear answer is because of the questions you asked. First of all, chronic bronchitis does not necessarily "lead" to emphysema. The two often occur together as smoking is the number one cause for both. Chronic bronchitis and emphysema are the two conditions that make up the category COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). COPD is defined by the World Health Organization as "a common preventable and treatable disease, characterized by airflow limitation that is usually progressive and associated with an enhanced chronic inflammatory response in the airways and the lung to noxious particles or gases." Chronic Bronchitis is a chronic productive cough in a person for at least 3 months for at least 2 successive years in which other causes of cough have been excluded. Emphysema is the permanent enlargement of the alveoli (the end airspaces in the lung) with accompanied destruction of the walls of those airspaces without obvious fibrosis (thickening). Either of these disease can lead to airflow limitations which brings the diagnosis of COPD in to cover them.
Secondly, to cor pulmonale. Cor pulmonale is the alteration in the structure of the right ventricle of the heart and abnormality of the function due to pulmonary hypertension. The alveoli of the lung are the last place the oxygen we take in is before it moves to the blood supply. As I described before, the walls of the alveoli are inflamed and destroyed with COPD as well as some limitation of getting air in and out of the lungs. Due to this, the oxygen diffusion that normally occurs in the lungs is disrupted. The lungs and heart try to compensate for this by increasing the pressure in the lungs (which is irreversible). When the pressure in the lungs increases, the heart has to push blood against a higher pressure system. The right ventricle (which is in charge of this) gets larger and thicker to be able to do this. It doesn't function normally because it is no longer "normal." This is what we call "cor pulmonale."
As far as more research into this, there are multiple sites online (webmd, and uptodate) that can help with this type of medical information.
how does chronic bronchitis lead to emphysema and how the cor pulmonale is developed??
i have gone through couple of websites but couldn't find clear answer if someone can please explain a bit, thanks!
waiting for answers
2 answers
Thank you so much, that helped alot, you rock ^_^ thanks again!!