Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)

YESTERDAY

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) was much less common than it is today because people did not live as long and fewer people smoked cigarettes.
Six times as many men as women died of COPD.
The term COPD was not used as widely as it is today. Doctors were more likely to tell their patients that they had “chronic bronchitis” or “emphysema” than to use the more general term “COPD,” which encompasses a fuller range of chronic obstructive lung diseases.
Spirometry, a simple measurement of the volume and rate of flow of breath that is used to diagnose COPD, was available only in specialized settings.
Although smoking was known to be a risk factor for COPD, it was not recognized as an addiction, and few therapies existed to help smokers quit.
Doctors were uncertain about the efficacy of available treatments in alleviating COPD symptoms.
Scientific research was focused largely on proteases, protein-degrading enzymes released by inflammatory cells that were suspected of causing lung destruction in individuals with emphysema.

Credit: iStock, sdominick