WHAT IS RESTRICTIVE RESPIRATORY DISEASE?
This is any respiratory condition where the patient is unable to take in a full, deep breath. It can be due to lung, chest cage, or nervous system disease. By analogy imagine a steel hoop placed around your chest so that you can breathe in a little, but not take a full, deep breath. Your breathing is then restricted. The closer the steel hoop comes to your resting breathing level at the end of a normal breath, the less you can inspire and the more severe is the restriction. Any respiratory condition resulting in inability to expand fully the lungs is a restrictive problem. Once air is inhaled, however, patients with restrictive disorders can exhale without any impediment or obstruction. Hence, the major distinction between restrictive and obstructive lung disease is between difficulty getting all the air in (restrictive) and getting all the air out (obstructive), This difference can be appreciated by measuring the forced vital capacity (Figure 1). WHAT IS OBSTRUCTIVE LUNG DISEASE? Asth
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