Chronic Bronchitis Symptoms: Understanding Your Cough

Make an appointment with your doctor or healthcare professional to have your cough examined and receive a diagnosis. In your appointment, your doctor will ask you questions about ²:

• Your symptoms
• Your medical history
• Your family’s medical history
   

To find out if you have chronic bronchitis, your physician will have to rule out other potential causes ^{2, 4}. To do so, they may ask for various tests, including ^{2, 4}:

• Blood tests
• Lung function tests
• Chest x-ray
• Oxygen saturation, that is, a measurement of how much oxygen is in your blood
• A culture of the sputum that you cough up

One of the conditions that your physician will have to rule out is pneumonia ⁴.

Bronchitis symptoms and pneumonia are similar. Both pneumonia and chronic bronchitis cause a cough³. However, in pneumonia, the cough can be dry or wet (productive), depending on whether the pneumonia is caused by a virus or a bacterium ^{1, 3}. By comparison, chronic bronchitis cough is almost always productive ⁴.

While both pneumonia and bronchitis cause inflammation of the lungs, they affect different parts of the respiratory system, and they have different causes ³.

Namely, bronchitis is inflammation of the mucous tissue that lines the airways, whereas pneumonia is inflammation of the little air sacs inside your lungs (called alveoli) ³. Alveoli help oxygen and carbon dioxide move quickly between the lungs and your blood vessels ³.

Pneumonia can be caused by a bacterial, viral, or fungal infection ³. 90% of the time, acute bronchitis is caused by a common virus ³. Chronic bronchitis, however, is a form of COPD and is usually caused by smoking or other irritants ^{2, 3, 4}

Your physician will recommend the best course of action based on your diagnosis and the cause of your bronchitis.

Treatment options for bronchitis include lifestyle changes and/or medications ⁴. Some medications can help to ⁴:

• Widen the air tubes in your lungs so you can breathe better
• Reduce inflammation
• Relax the muscles in your airways
   

Doctors do not usually prescribe antibiotics for chronic bronchitis ⁴.

If you’re a smoker, the most important thing you can do is to stop smoking ^{2, 4}. You should also avoid pollutants and irritants at work or at home ⁴.

Speak to a healthcare professional for a diagnosis and advice on the best strategy going forward. Your physician may recommend ways to rehabilitate your lungs, such as an exercise program or techniques to help you breathe better ⁴.

Chronic bronchitis is not contagious ¹. However, it can make you more vulnerable to getting infections from bacteria or viruses ¹.