Bronchitis Symptoms
Symptoms of Bronchitis
Cough and expectoration are the most prominent symptoms of bronchitis. If the bronchitis is infectious, the patients often have a fever. Acute bronchitis is often initiated with the upper respiratory infection symptoms (e.g. runny nose, sore throat). If the bronchi are affected by spasmodic contraction, they also feel shortness of breath and chest tightness; These two symptoms are more common in asthmatic bronchitis, asthma, and chronic bronchitis.
Reduced general state
Bronchitis occur more frequently in children, older people and people with weakened respiratory defense or immune state; However, it also involves the healthy adults. In many cases, before the bronchitis, the patients have an upper respiratory infection (infections in nose, pharynx, larynx, tonsils), and thus they may get headache, fever, runny nose, sore throat, hoarse voice, or even watering of the eyes.
Acute bronchitis can be directly caused by risk factors, or comes from upper respiratory infections (e.g. cold) or flu. When the patients get the acute bronchitis, the upper respiratory tract infections have already been self-healing. Therefore, they usually have no symptoms from the nose, throat or eyes. However, headache (forehead pain), fever (38 ° C) and fatigue can still exist due to infectious substances (viruses, bacteria).
Cough and Expectoration
Initially, the patients have a dry cough, sometimes with a little mucoid sputum. A few days later, they have a productive cough. The mucus is white due to virus infection, which is the leading cause of acute bronchitis. Still later in the course of bronchitis, when bacteria join together, the quantities of mucus are significantly increased. Pyogenic bacteria infection produces copious purulent mucus (pus) in bronchi, the patients can cough up yellowish-greenish purulent sputum. The purulent sputum is very frequent in the advanced stage of acute bronchitis. Occasionally, severe coughing can cause a blood tinged sputum. Cough and expectoration can last for 2 to 3 weeks and then subside.
Generated: 2011-12-22