Doctors may classify lung conditions as obstructive lung disease or restrictive lung disease. Obstructive lung disease includes conditions that make it hard to exhale all the air in the lungs. People with restrictive lung disease have difficulty fully extending their lungs with air.
Obstructive and restrictive lung disease share the same main symptom: shortness of breath with exertion.
What Is Obstructive Lung Disease?
People with obstructive lung disease have shortness of breath due to difficulty exhaling all the air from the lungs. Because of damage to the lungs or narrowing of the airways inside the lungs, exhaled air comes out more slowly than normal. At the end of a full exhalation, an abnormally high amount of air may still linger in the lungs.
The most common causes of obstructive lung disease are:
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis
- Asthma
- Bronchiectasis
Obstructive lung disease makes it harder to breathe, especially during increased activity or exertion. As the rate of breathing increases, there is less time to breathe all the air out before the next inhalation.
What Is Restrictive Lung Disease?
People with restrictive lung disease cannot fill their lungs with air. Their lungs are restricted from fully expanding.
Restrictive lung disease most often results from a condition causing stiffness in the lungs themselves. In other cases, stiffness of the chest wall, weak muscles, or damaged nerves may cause the restriction in lung expansion.
Some conditions causing restrictive lung disease are:
- Interstitial lung disease, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- Sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease
- Obesity, including obesity hypoventilation syndrome
- Scoliosis
- Neuromuscular disease
- such as muscular dystrophy or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Diagnosis of Obstructive Lung Disease and Restrictive Lung Disease
Most commonly, people with obstructive or restrictive lung disease seek a doctor because they feel short of breath.
Restrictive and obstructive lung diseases can be identified using pulmonary function tests. In pulmonary disease, a person blows out air forcefully through a mouthpiece. As the person performs various breathing maneuvers, a machine captures the volume and flow of air through the lungs. Pulmonary disease testing can be used for identifying the presence of obstructive lung disease or restrictive lung disease, as well as their seriousness.
A doctor’s interview including smoking history and lab tests which might provide additional clues to the cause of obstructive lung disease or restrictive lung disease.
Imaging tests are almost always part of the diagnosis of restrictive and obstructive lung disease. These may include:
- Chest X-ray film
- Computed tomography CT scan of the chest
In some people, a bronchoscopy might be done to diagnose the lung condition causing obstructive or restrictive lung disease. In a bronchoscopy, a doctor can use an endoscope, a flexible tube with a working camera, and tools on the tips to look inside the airways and you can take samples of lung tissue.
Symptoms of Obstructive and Restrictive Lung Disease
Obstructive lung disease and restrictive lung disease cause shortness of breath. During the early stages of obstructive or restrictive lung disease, shortness of breath happens only with excessive exertion. If the underlying situation progresses, breathlessness might occur with very lesser activity, even if you rest.
These were some similarities and difference in Obstructive and restrictive lung disease.