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.
The list of signs and symptoms mentioned in various sources for COPD includes the 26 symptoms listed below:
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The list of other diseases or medical conditions that may be on the differential diagnosis list of alternative diagnoses for COPD includes:
See the full list of 34 alternative diagnoses for COPD
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More information about symptoms of COPD and related conditions:
Click on any of the symptoms below to see a full list of other causes including diseases, medical conditions, toxins, drug interactions, or drug side effect causes of that symptom.
Medical Books Excerpts Excerpts of published medical book chapters related to COPD are available from published medical books for more detailed information about COPD.
Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.
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The typical patient, a long-term cigarette smoker, has no symptoms until middle age. His ability to exercise or do strenuous work gradually starts to decline and he begins to develop a productive cough. These signs are subtle at first, but become more pronounced as the patient gets older and the disease progresses. Eventually the patient may develop dyspnea on minimal exertion, frequent respiratory infections, intermittent or continuous hypoxemia, and grossly abnormal pulmonary function studies. Advanced COPD may cause severe dyspnea, overwhelming disability, cor pulmonale, severe respiratory failure, and death.
Source: Professional Guide to Diseases (Eighth Edition), 2005
The typical patient, a long-term cigarette smoker, has no symptoms until middle age, when his ability to exercise or do strenuous work gradually starts to decline and he begins to develop a productive cough. Although subtle at first, these signs become more pronounced as the patient grows older and the disease progresses.
Eventually the patient develops dyspnea on minimal exertion, frequent respiratory tract infections, intermittent or continuous hypoxemia, and grossly abnormal pulmonary function studies. In its advanced form, COPD may cause thoracic deformities, overwhelming disability, cor pulmonale, severe respiratory failure, and death.
Source: Handbook of Diseases, 2003
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)
When considering symptoms of COPD, it is also important to consider COPD as a possible cause of other medical conditions. The Disease Database lists the following medical conditions that COPD may cause:
These general reference articles may be of interest in relation to medical signs and symptoms of disease in general:
Full list of premium articles on symptoms and diagnosis
The symptom information on this page attempts to provide a list of some possible signs and symptoms of COPD. This signs and symptoms information 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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