Acute and Chronic Bronchitis

Bronchitis is a respiratory infection that causes inflammation of the airways to the lungs, especially the bronchi. There are two forms of bronchitis are acute bronchitis and chronic bronchitis.

Acute bronchitis is signed by symptoms of cough attack suddenly and lasts shorter. In this type, inflammation or the bronchial inflammation is usually caused by viral or bacterial infection and exacerbated by exposure to irritants like cigarette smoke, air pollution, chemical, dust etc.

Chronic bronchitis is be marked by recurrent for a long time (3 months of the year for 2 consecutive years). In chronic bronchitis, bronchial inflammation persist for several time and create obstruction to the normal airflow in the Respiratory Tract, symptom usually increases due to smoking and aggravated by an infection or first exposure of irritants.

Bronchitis is often arise along with emphysema (damage to the alveoli). The cause of bronchitis generally, it covers smoking and air pollution, which constantly irritate the airways resulting in inflammation and the excessive of mucus (sputum) production in airway.

These condition resulted in a narrowing to the respiratory tract, therefore it becomes increasingly susceptible infection, more frequent relapses and more severe damage. Complications of bronchitis, emphysema, recurrent respiratory infections and hemoptysis (coughing of blood).