Symptoms of COPD include shortness of breath, especially with exertion, an ongoing loose cough that produces large amount of mucus (smoker's cough), wheezing (a whistling sound made with breathing) and chest tightness. Other symptoms can include change in alertness or mental status, fatigue, confusion, anxiety, dizziness, and pallor or cyanosis (blue tinged coloring of the skin, especially around the mouth in the extremities) These symptoms are related to a lack of oxygen in the blood.
Not all symptoms of COPD are always related to COPD. Although difficulty breathing is typical of COPD, it and other symptoms can be related to many other potentially serious conditions, including cardiovascular conditions, such as myocardial infarction (heart attack) and congestive heart failure. Only a thorough evaluation by a professional health care provider can determine what is causing and how to treat your particular symptoms....more...»
The list of medical symptoms mentioned in various sources for COPD may include:
Note that COPD symptoms usually refers to various medical symptoms known to a patient, but the phrase COPD signs may often refer to those signs that are only noticable by a doctor.
Daily morning cough with clear sputum is the earliest symptom of COPD. During a cold or other acute respiratory tract infection, the coughing may be much more noticeable and the sputum often turns yellow or greenish. Periods of wheezing are likely to occur especially during or after colds or other respiratory tract infections. Shortness of breath on exertion develops later and progressively becomes more pronounced with severe episodes of breathlessness (dyspnea) occurring after even modest activity.
A typical course of COPD might proceed as follows. For a period of about 10 years after cigarette smoking begins, symptoms are usually not very noticeable. After this, the patient generally starts developing a chronic cough with the production of a small amount of sputum. It is unusual to develop shortness of breath during exertion below the age of 40, after which it becomes more common and may be well developed by the age of 50. However, although all COPD patients have these symptoms, not all cigarette smokers develop a notable cough and sputum production, or shortness of breath. (Source: excerpt from Course of COPD: NHLBI)
More detailed symptom information may be found on the symptoms of COPD article. In addition to the above medical information, to get a full picture of the possible signs or symptoms of this condition and also possibly the signs and symptoms of its related medical conditions, it may be necessary to examine symptoms that may be caused by:
These general reference articles may be related to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:
The phrase "signs of COPD" should, strictly speaking, refer only to those signs and symptoms of COPD that are not readily apparent to the patient. The word "symptoms of COPD" is the more general meaning; see symptoms of COPD.
The signs and symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of COPD. This medical information about signs and symptoms for COPD has been gathered from various sources, may not be fully accurate, and may not be the full list of COPD signs or COPD symptoms. Furthermore, signs and symptoms of COPD may vary on an individual basis for each patient. Only your doctor can provide adequate diagnosis of any signs or symptoms and whether they are indeed COPD symptoms.
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