title: [Definition of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease].
abstract: COPD is a disease manifested by a combination of chronic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema. The main risk factors of COPD are chronic smoking and genetic dispositions. The current definition of COPD was established in Western countries in the late 1960s and 1970s, but in Japan COPD has long been used as a term for a physiological syndrome showing chronic obstructive airway symptoms including not only chronic bronchitis and pulmonary emphysema, but also asthma, diffuse panbronchiolitis, and even lymphangioleiomyomatosis. This difference in understanding between the West and Japan is probably due to the markedly lower incidence of COPD in Japan. However, increases in the number of patients with pulmonary emphysema from the late 1980s in Japan have been gathering new concern about COPD. In the governmental statistics for 1995, the term COPD was used for the same entity it is used in the West. Also, the Japanese COPD guideline, the definition of COPD is the same as that in the West.
authors.affiliation: Kyoto University.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Izumi
mesh_terms: D001991:Bronchitis; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology; D011656:Pulmonary Emphysema; D012307:Risk Factors; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects