title: ["Small airway disease". A short review].
abstract: Recent research aimed at detection of early chronic obstructive lung disease has resulted in the concept of "small airway disease". The physiologic abnormalities associated with this entity, which is characterized by structural changes in peripheral airways, are too slight to be detected by conventional pulmonary function tests. A number of more sensitive methods have been found helpful in the recognition of small airway disease which, among other conditions, appears to be present in asymptomatic young smokers. Although final evidence of the suggested relationship between small airway disease and clinically manifest chronic obstructive lung disease is still lacking, this hypothesis is intriguing since it relates to a chronic disease in a potentially reversible stage.
mesh_terms: D000402:Airway Obstruction / Q000473:pathology; D001249:Asthma / Q000150:complications; D001980:Bronchi / Q000473:pathology; D001991:Bronchitis / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000473:pathology; D011656:Pulmonary Emphysema / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000150:complications; D009626:Terminology as Topic
vernacular_title: Eine Kurzübersicht