Everyone knows that coughing, phlegm and difficulty breathing may be symptoms of COPD, but many people don’t know that if the elderly at home experience mental excitement, inconsistency in words, memory loss, etc., they may also suffer from COPD. .

Everyone knows that coughing, sputum, and difficulty breathing may be symptoms of COPD , but many people don’t know that If the elderly at home experience mental excitement, inconsistency, and memory loss of 4, and so on Maybe suffering from COPD.

Dr. Cheng Zhe from the fifth department of respiratory and critical care medicine of Zhengzhou University First Affiliated Hospital has encountered such a patient. This is an old lady in her 90s. Ten years ago, when she was 80, she couldn't sleep at night for half a year because she was also accompanied by chest tightness and . She went to the cardiology department for treatment and had coronary angiography. No problem with the heart. So the cardiology doctor asked the old lady to do an blood gas analysis and found that the carbon dioxide partial pressure was more than 60, so he suggested going to Dr. Cheng Zhe's respiratory department for treatment. Dr. Cheng Zhe asked her to do lung function test based on the carbon dioxide partial pressure value of the old lady, and was diagnosed with COPD. After treatment with non-invasive ventilator for one night, the old lady was very happy the next day and said that she had not had a good sleep for half a year, but she slept very well last night.

Doctor Cheng Zhe said that due to individual differences, some patients with COPD have not had that typical symptoms, and may not have symptoms of cough, sputum, and difficulty breathing. or these symptoms do not have these symptoms. Arouse enough attention from the patients. On the contrary, it is first manifested as mental excitement and inability to sleep. In the worse, it may cause drowsiness or even coma. There is a professional term for clinical situations caused by this COPD, which is called Pulmonary encephalopathy .

Pulmonary encephalopathy is a clinical comprehensive study of various neuropsychiatric symptoms that occur due to various chronic lung diseases accompanied by respiratory failure, resulting in hypoxemia and hypercapnemia . Combination sign. clinical features are: original respiratory failure symptoms worsen and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as trance, drowsiness, headache, dizziness, memory loss, easy excitement, multi-speaking or slight language, insomnia, etc. In severe cases, the limbs will appear. Twitching or even coma.

Doctor Cheng Zhe introduced that patients with severe COPD may sometimes experience type 2 respiratory failure due to the aggravation of the condition. This respiratory failure will have an impact on central nervous system , and a series of symptoms that appear are "pulmonary encephalopathy". first manifests itself as mental excitement and inability to sleep. When the partial pressure of carbon dioxide continues to rise, the patient will experience drowsiness or even coma.

Doctor Cheng Zhe emphasized that once patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary pulmonary disease , the following four points should be paid attention to: l2

1, treatment is mainly used to correct hypoxia and improve ventilation function. Non-invasive mechanical ventilation can be used to relieve symptoms. Treat primary diseases and improve symptoms. 2. If the patient has symptoms of insomnia, must avoid taking the sleep sedative drug , which will cause the patient to turn from excitation to inhibition and aggravate respiratory failure. 3. For patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary pulmonary patients who need oxygen inhalation, should have low flow and low concentration of oxygen inhalation , otherwise it will aggravate carbon dioxide retention . This is because mild hypoxia plays an excitatory role on respiratory center . If oxygen inhalation is high at a high concentration, it will quickly relieve the hypoxia state, which will inhibit the excitatory effect of the respiratory center. Carbon dioxide retention itself inhibits the respiratory center. If it is further aggravated, it will lead to further aggravation of respiratory failure. 4. If elderly patients experience similar symptoms, do not easily think of as senile dementia . It is necessary to rule out whether there is a possibility of pulmonary encephalopathy secondary to COPD. The old lady in her 90s who was introduced at the beginning of

was diagnosed with mild respiratory failure of COPD due to excitement and insomnia 10 years ago. It has been 10 years since then, and her condition has been relatively stable.Therefore, Dr. Cheng Zhe reminds patients with COPD that does not need to panic when diagnosed with COPD or pulmonary encephalopathy caused by COPD, because mental symptoms caused by COPD can be completely relieved with the correction of respiratory failure. compared For Alzheimer's disease, this treatment effect is very good!