Alcoholic lung disease
Alcoholic lung disease | |
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Respirology |
Alcoholic lung disease is disease of the lungs caused by excessive alcohol. The term 'alcoholic lung disease' is not a generally accepted medical diagnosis, and "the association between alcohol abuse and acute lung injury remains largely unrecognized, even by lung researchers".[1]
Chronic alcohol ingestion impairs multiple critical cellular functions in the lung. These cellular impairments lead to increased susceptibility to the serious complications from a pre-existing lung disease. Recent research cites alcoholic lung disease as comparable to liver disease in alcohol-related mortality.
Cause
Pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the lung parenchyma and oxygenation. When a patient with pneumonia is an alcoholic, the mortality rate exceeds by 50% if they are placed into intensive care (ICU). According to Kershaw, C 2008 page 1, "[a]s of 2001, pneumonia was the sixth most common cause of death in the United States".
Alcoholism increases mortality from pneumonia because of leukopenia, lower white blood cell counts, which leads to a worse infection because white blood cells help fight the bacterial infection, so lower numbers result in a less effective immune response.[2] Alcoholics are at an increased risk for infection with tissue-damaging gram-negative pathogens or for the spread of bacteria in the blood.[3]
Mechanism
The mechanisms of alcoholic lung disease are:
- anti-oxidant levels in the lungs.[4]
- Oxidation damage to the cells impairs the ability of the lungs to remove fluid.
- Oxidative damage to cells reduces immune response.
- Oxidative damage to cells results in a reduced ability to recover from injury.
These chemical changes compound the negative mechanical and microbiological effects of alcoholism on the respiratory system. These include impaired
Diagnosis
Differential diagnosis
Although lung damage from concurrent smoking and drug use is often indistinguishable from alcoholic lung disease, there is support for considering alcoholic lung disease as an independent syndrome.[5] Over the last decade, evidence from epistemological studies show that hazardous alcohol use alone can increase by as much as fourfold the risk for acute respiratory distress syndrome.[6]
See also
References
- ^ PMID 23584753. Archived from the originalon 12 May 2021. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
- PMID 23930244.
- PMID 23584753.
- PMID 17220370.
- PMID 18971602
- ^ Pratibha C. Joshi, David M. Guidot (2007). "The alcoholic lung: epidemiology, pathophysiology, and potential therapies". American Physiological Society. Retrieved 10 March 2013.