Pulmonary and Critical Care
Learn About Pulmonary Diseases
Lung disease is any disease or disorder where lung
function is impaired. There are three major physiologic 
categories of lung
diseases:
- Obstructive lung disease -- a decrease in the exhaled air flow caused by a narrowing
or blockage of the airways, such as with asthma, emphysema, and chronic
bronchitis.
- Restrictive lung disease -- a decrease in the total volume of air that the lungs are
able to hold. Often, this is due to a decrease in the elasticity of the lungs
themselves or caused by a problem related to the expansion of the chest wall
during inhalation.
- A defect in the ability of the lung's air sac tissue to move oxygen into a
person's blood.
Most lung diseases actually involve a combination of these categories, such
as emphysema, which involves both airflow obstruction and oxygenation
problems.
Major lung diseases
include:
Other lung diseases include:
- asbestosis
- aspergilloma
- aspergillosis
- aspergillosis - acute invasive
- atelectasis
- eosinophilic pneumonia
- lung cancer
- necrotizing pneumonia
- pleural effusion
- pneumoconiosis
- pneumocystosis
- pneumonia
- pneumothorax
- pulmonary actinomycosis
- pulmonary alveolar proteinosis
- pulmonary anthrax
- pulmonary arteriovenous malformation
- pulmonary edema
- pulmonary embolus
- pulmonary histiocytosis X (eosinophilic granuloma)
- pulmonary hypertension
- pulmonary nocardiosis
- pulmonary tuberculosis
- pulmonary veno-occlusive disease
- rheumatoid lung disease
This list is not complete. There are other lung diseases and disorders.
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