It's hard to find someone who has never had bronchitis. Symptoms of the disease are known to almost everyone. The main ones are cough and fever. Many people think so, but they are wrong. Firstly, because bronchitis can occur without coughing and without fever. Secondly, because there are other diseases with similar symptoms.
Another delusion of patients is the assertion that this disease occurs exclusively in winter from hypothermia. In fact, they can get sick in the heat and in severe cold, dressing very lightly and pulling on a bunch of blouses, felt boots, a fur coat, a hat. There are many causes of bronchitis. Each is "responsible" for a certain type of disease. This article will discuss the symptoms of bronchitis of various etiologies in children and adults, their causes and methods of treatment.
What processes occur in the bronchi
To put it simply, we all breathe with our lungs. But not only they are involved in supplying our body with oxygen. The bronchi play an important role in this process. Their inflammationcalled bronchitis. Symptoms of the disease may appear immediately or begin to manifest in a few days. The bronchi are the transport system through which air from the environment enters the lungs, where it enters the bloodstream.
The trachea, which is a hollow tube, begins from the border of the larynx in a person. It has the largest diameter among all organs of the respiratory system. Its inflammation is called tracheitis. At the level of the 5th thoracic vertebrae, it divides into two bronchi - right and left. The diameter of each is about half that of the trachea. The bronchi are also hollow tubes that enter the lungs. There they repeatedly branch into smaller tubules. The latter are called bronchioles, and their inflammation is called bronchiolitis.
Inside, the bronchi are covered with mucous tissue with receptors and cilia (ciliated epithelium). The receptors secrete mucus to keep the surface of the tubes from drying out, and the cilia are involved in the process of cleaning the air coming from outside.
When any irritating agent enters the bronchi, an unconditioned reflex is immediately triggered. The muscles lining their walls instantly begin to perform contractile movements, trying to push the stimulus out. The person coughs.
If a foreign agent penetrates the mucous membranes, they become inflamed. At the same time, the receptors begin to secrete more mucus, which the muscles also try to remove. In humans, this process is marked by a wet cough with sputum. Thus, this symptom is protective for a person. The body, with the help of coughing, tries to protect itself from adverse aggressors that have entered the respiratory tract. Phlegm is needed to envelop foreign structures and interfere with their progress to the lungs.
Causes of disease in children and adults
There are a lot of irritants that cause coughing. Therefore, the symptoms of bronchitis may vary. Treatment at home, which is practiced by most patients, does not always justify itself, depending on the causes of the disease. They can be:
- Dust (most often provokes allergic bronchitis).
- Acid odors.
- Tobacco smoke (causes smoker's bronchitis).
- Viruses (influenza, pneumoinfluenza, rotavirus).
- Bacteria (Streptococcus, Pneumococcus and many others).
- Mushrooms (most often Candida).
All the reasons from the above list are the development of inflammation in adults, but for children, even for infants, they are relevant. Do not wonder. Babies may develop symptoms of bronchitis not only from infection in the respiratory tract, but also from tobacco smoke. To remove them, parents must stop smoking in the children's room.
Children can also cause bronchitis:
- Worms.
- Diathesis.
- Inflamed tonsils.
- Rickets.
- Adenoids.
If the disease is caused by these causes, it must be treated with medication.
However, it is not uncommon for children to cough due to too dry air in the room. Many parents also call this bronchitis and rush to buy medicines, although they just need to increase the humidity in the room. It should be in the region of 65-70%. You can find it out with a special device - a hygrometer. Sometimes such functions are built into electronic watches. You can increase the humidity by placing a bowl of water on the battery. This is the easiest way.
Cough in children may appear as a complication of rhinitis, sinusitis. With these ailments, the child begins to breathe through the mouth, which dries out the trachea and bronchi. It is for this reason that with nasal congestion, you need to give the patient more often warm tea or at least plain water.
Bacteria and fungi get into the bronchi from time to time. Their percentage of the total number of diseases is only 1%. The remaining 99% are viruses. Basically, bronchitis occurs against the background of influenza, SARS, rotavirus infection. Therefore, those who associate this disease with the winter period and with the common cold are partly right.
Classification
In medical practice, several types of bronchitis are diagnosed.
Depending on the nature of the flow, the following types are distinguished:
- Spicy.
- Chronic.
- Obstructive.
Depending on the pathogenesis, bronchitis is isolated:
- Primary (initially, inflammation occurs in the bronchi).
- Secondary (appears against the background of other ailments, which may be flu, measles, whooping cough).
Depending on the nature of the inflammation of the mucous membranes, these types of bronchitis are distinguished:
- Purulent.
- Hemorrhagic.
- Catarrhal.
- Ulcerative.
- Fibrous.
- Necrotic.
Consider the symptoms of bronchitis in children (2 years of age and older) as well as in adults.
Sharp shape
Children under 3 have smaller bronchi than adults. Therefore, their bronchitis develops somewhat more severely, often turning into an obstructive form.
In most cases, it is viruses that cause the disease that enter the respiratory system by airborne droplets, that is, with the inhalation of air in which microbes are present. Therefore, the most likely possibility of infection is the communication of a child with a sick person, and it doesn’t matter if it’s a mother, a friend in kindergarten or a random passenger on the bus.
In children 2 years old, the symptoms of acute bronchitis may appear a day or two after contact with the source of infection. During the incubation period, while the viruses that have got into the bronchi are mastered there and multiply, the baby may become lethargic, begin to refuse food, active games. Parents should notice that his voice was hoarse, a runny nose and sneezing appeared, his eyes began to turn sour. These are all indicators that an infection has entered the body. Temperatures in the first days, as a rule, do not happen.
With such signs, the child should be given more warm teas with honey to drink (if there is no allergy to this product), you can put an antiviral suppository at night.
On the second or third, and in some children and on the fourth day (depending on the strength of the immune system), a sharp manifestation of the disease begins. Symptoms of bronchitis in children under 3 years of age are:
- Sudden rise in temperatureabove 38 degrees.
- Sweating.
- Shortness of breath.
- Hoarse voice.
- Disease, lack of appetite.
- Fever (may develop due to high temperature).
- Cough.
At first it is dry because the bronchial tubes are not producing enough mucus yet. Soon he starts coughing up phlegm. Since the bronchi of young children are not yet sufficiently developed, their lumen narrows sharply, which causes breathing difficulties. Even without a stethoscope, you can hear wheezing in the lungs of a child, a characteristic whistle when inhaling and exhaling. If the necessary treatment is not carried out, the small bronchi and bronchioles may close, the child will begin to choke. Also, the process of inflammation of the bronchioles is fraught with the occurrence of bronchopneumonia. Therefore, doctors, including the famous doctor Komarovsky, insist on the treatment of bronchitis in young children only in a hospital. This is especially true for infants who do not know how to cough up sputum.
Treatment of acute bronchitis in children
Diagnosis is most often made on the basis of the clinical picture. In rare cases, patients are prescribed a chest x-ray and a blood test. Since it is very unlikely that the bronchi have become inflamed due to the penetration of bacteria into them, children with symptoms of acute bronchitis should never be given antibiotics.
It is important during this period to provide the baby with a plentiful warm drink, as the liquid helps to remove phlegm with a wet cough and relieves pain with a dry one. It is useful to prepare rosehip decoctions for a child, make teas with blackcurrant, raspberry,linden, chamomile, sage.
If the cough is still without sputum, it is necessary to take drugs that promote the secretion of mucus receptors. These are Oxeladin, Prenoxdiazine and others.
If sputum is already secreted when coughing, it is necessary to give the child expectorants and mucolytics: Ambroxol, Muk altin, Bromhexine.
It is also necessary to drink the baby with antiviral drugs "Rimantadine", "Umivenovir" and others.
Proper nutrition helps to quickly defeat the disease. It should consist of light meals. You can't force feed a baby.
Bathing with bronchitis is not prohibited, provided there is no high temperature. It is important that the bath water is not too hot.
Walking outside is also encouraged. But it is impossible to wrap up the child strongly. Otherwise, he may sweat, which will further worsen the condition.
Acute bronchitis in adults
The main causes of this disease in adults are the same as in children. The main one is contact with a sick person. Contributes to the occurrence of bronchitis reduced immunity due to various factors:
- Past infectious diseases.
- Operations.
- Chest injury.
- Stress.
- Fatigue.
- Unfavorable living conditions, poor nutrition.
- Age over 55.
- Hormonal disorders.
The symptoms of bronchitis in adults are not much different. With a temperature of 39 degrees and above, thisthe disease is infrequent. Basically, it keeps within 37, 5-38 degrees. During the incubation period, adults feel a slight malaise, fatigue, headache, sore throat, as if something got there and they want to cough it up.
Approximately on the 2nd day from the onset of the disease, chest pains appear, a dry (unproductive) cough begins. It is quite painful, accompanied by very unpleasant sensations in the throat and trachea. During this period, the temperature rises. After a couple of days, the cough becomes wet (productive). If the sputum secreted is purulent, this means that a bacterial infection has been added to the viral infection. The cough can last quite a long time (more than a month).
If the inflammation affects the bronchioles, bronchopneumonia can set in. In this case, antibiotics are added to the treatment with antiviral drugs, otherwise the process may develop into pneumonia.
Treatment of acute bronchitis in adults
The first thing to do is quit smoking. Only in this case it is possible to achieve positive dynamics.
Adults are prescribed drugs that dilate the bronchi. Drugs of choice: Salbutamol, Berodual, Eufillin, Fenterol, Teodart.
Next, you need to take mucolytics and expectorants. Drugs of choice: Lazolvan, Bromhexine, Thermopsis, Ambrobene, ACC.
If adults have symptoms of bronchitis and a temperature above 38 degrees, an antipyretic is prescribed.
Antiviral therapy is carried out with the help of Viferon preparations,"Genferon", "Kipferon" and their analogues.
Bacterial bronchitis
As noted above, sometimes bacteria can also cause illness. Most often they enter the bronchi with an infection already present in the body. Sometimes bacteria can be picked up from a sick person through direct contact with him. With bacterial etiology, the symptoms of bronchitis in children Komarovsky calls the following:
- Quick manifestation (very short incubation period).
- A sharp rise in temperature to 39-40 degrees.
- Signs of intoxication (vomiting, nausea, impaired stool).
- Sluggishness (child "like a rag").
- No runny nose.
With such signs, only hospitalization is needed. The child should be tested, sputum cultured. Treatment is carried out with antibiotics of the penicillin and tetracycline groups.
For bacterial etiology and corresponding symptoms of bronchitis in adults, home treatment is allowed. The patient needs to provide bed rest, plentiful warm drink. A course of antibiotic therapy is required. Drugs of choice:
1. Penicillins (Augmentin, Flemoxin, Amoxicillin).
2. Cephalosporins (Cefaclor, Cefixime, Klaforan, Cefazolin).
3. Macrolides (Erythromycin, Clarithromycin, Vilpramen, Rovamycin).
4. Fluoroquinolones (Moxifloxacin, Levofloxacin).
Adults are also shown nebulizer inhalation and breathing exercises.
Chronicbronchitis
If the cough lasts more than 3 months within 2 years, they talk about chronic bronchitis. Children under 3 years of age are not diagnosed, even if the disease occurs every month. In such cases, the pediatrician notes in the child's card that he is often ill.
In babies after 3 years, the frequency of diseases decreases due to the fact that at this age there is a restructuring of their respiratory system. If in the future there will be frequent symptoms of bronchitis in children (3 or more times a year), then they talk about the transition of the disease to a chronic form. In adults, this phenomenon is quite common. Reasons may be:
- Smoking.
- Work in hazardous industries.
- Long-term residence in environmentally unfriendly areas.
In children, the causes of this pathology are most often undertreated or improperly treated infectious diseases, in particular acute bronchitis.
In a still fragile child's body, microbes easily penetrate from the bronchi and lungs into the blood, with the current of which they are carried throughout the body. At the slightest opportunity (hypothermia, any infection leading to a decrease in immunity), they are activated, which manifests itself in an exacerbation of chronic bronchitis.
In addition to infections, this form of the disease occurs for the following reasons:
- Impact on the organs of the respiratory system of allergens (pollen, odors, food).
- Gastric reflux.
- Stress.
- Using certain drugs.
- Weather fluctuations.
- Tobacco smoke. In this case, the patient (child) does not need to smoke. Quite a long time to be in a smoky room.
Chronic bronchitis treatment
In case of relapses (the appearance of characteristic symptoms of bronchitis), home treatment is carried out according to the classical scheme:
- Plentiful warm drink.
- Easy food that does not irritate the esophagus and stomach, is quickly digested.
- Antivirals.
- For a dry cough, drugs that relieve the symptom.
- For wet cough - mucolytics and expectorants.
- If the temperature is high, you can give the child antipyretics.
- In chronic bronchitis, doctors often attribute vitamin complexes to strengthen the immune system.
Alternative Medicine
For all types of bronchitis in children and adults, treatment with physiotherapeutic methods is welcome. These include:
- Inhalations.
- Compresses.
- Rubbing.
- Breathing exercises.
- Massage.
If a child has severe symptoms of bronchitis, Komarovsky recommends using alternative methods in conjunction with the main treatment.
Inhalations can only be done with a nebulizer, while you need to use solutions of agents that help remove sputum (a decoction of licorice, anise root, essential oils). It is unacceptable to place antibiotic solutions in the nebulizer. Komarovsky warns that doing hot steam inhalations is not only not useful, but also harmful, as it slows down recovery.
Compresses on the chest and rubbing can beperform only if the child does not have a temperature.
Breathing exercises are especially useful for chronic bronchitis. It affects the muscles of the bronchi, the diaphragm, the general condition of the respiratory system, the quality of bronchial secretions.
Massage Komarovsky recommends performing in order to improve bronchial drainage. The child should be seated on his knees with his back to himself, asked to take a deep breath and cough. In this case, it is necessary to easily compress the baby's ribs.
Allergic bronchitis
This disease is diagnosed equally in adults and children. Many allergens can cause it:
- Plant pollen.
- Domestic or street dust.
- Smoke.
- All kinds of smells.
- Insect bites.
- Mold.
- Animal wool.
In addition, symptoms of allergic bronchitis may occur after using certain toothpastes or other oral care or treatment products, or after eating foods or medicines.
Allergic bronchitis can be seasonal (such as a reaction to plant pollen) or permanent.
In the first case, one can note the approximate time of the beginning of its manifestation, which is quite bright. A person has:
- Rhinitis.
- Sore throat.
- Teary.
- Sweating.
- Cough worse at night.
Temperature is usually absent. In rare cases, it rises to 37.2-37.5 degrees.
Wothe second case, the symptoms of bronchitis are blurred. A person may constantly feel a slight malaise. Many have nasal congestion, frequent sneezing, coughing, temperature around 37.0-37.2 C.
The general he alth of patients in both cases is non-critical, they do not need bed rest.
With this disease, it is very important to determine which allergen is causing it and (if possible) eliminate it.
Drug treatment should be comprehensive. It includes the following drugs:
1. Antihistamines (Erius, Claritin).
2. Enterosorbents (prescribed if there are signs of intoxication).
3. Broncholytics for inhalation with a nebulizer.
Also, the doctor may prescribe drugs that help cough up sputum (Muk altin, Bronhosan) and relax the muscles (Intal and analogues).
It is important to clean the room daily with a vacuum cleaner and a wet cloth, to ensure the necessary humidity in the room.
Smoker's Bronchitis: Symptoms and Treatment
This disease in adults occurs in the form of chronic bronchitis and begins to actively manifest itself with more than 10 years of smoking experience. Nicotine blocks the work of cilia located in the epithelial layer of the bronchi, which allows toxic substances to enter the lungs and cause inflammatory reactions.
This type of illness has several stages.
On the first, bronchitis can occur without coughing. The symptoms of a smoker are blurred and are expressed in fatigue, frequent headaches,sore throat, shortness of breath when performing physical exertion. A slight cough may appear only in the morning.
In the second stage, the cough becomes more frequent, wet. The sputum that stands out at the same time has a yellowish color. All the signs that were there before are progressing.
And on the third cough becomes a permanent phenomenon. It is protracted, painful, aggravated by the wind, especially in damp cold weather. Oxygen starvation is observed in the patient due to deformations that have occurred over the years in the respiratory system, problems begin not only with the lungs, but also with other organs - the liver, stomach, heart, vision weakens, immunity decreases, brain activity is disturbed.
Treatment for a smoker depends on the stage of the disease.
At the first stage, when there are symptoms of bronchitis without coughing, it is enough to quit smoking, go in for sports, get out into nature more often, take a ticket to a sanatorium. It is very useful for such people to organize a balanced diet, diversify the menu with dishes containing vitamins, visit the pool.
At the next stages, drug treatment is needed.
Doctor usually prescribes bronchodilators:
1. Adrenomimetics ("Ephedrine", "Epinephrine"). They relieve attacks of respiratory failure.
2. M-chilonoblockers (Atropine, Berodual).
3. Phosphodiesterase inhibitors ("Theophylline", "Eufillin"). Relax the muscles in the bronchi, improve ventilation.
4. Corticosteroids (Dexamethasone, Prednisolone). Appointed mainly in the third stage.
Also prescribed mucolytics andanti-inflammatory drugs, and if there is pus in the sputum, then antibiotics.
Bronchitis without cough
This phenomenon also occurs with this disease. Reasons:
- The initial stage of the disease, manifested by malaise, runny nose, sneezing, headache.
- Chronic form, more common in adults. Symptoms of bronchitis without coughing are fatigue, hard breathing, shortness of breath, and excessive sweating. In children, chronic bronchitis without cough is observed only during periods of remission.
- The cough center is depressed, because of which the receptors do not work. There are urges to cough, but they are not realized. This is more often observed in babies due to the imperfection of their nervous system.
If there is no cough at the beginning of bronchitis, no need to worry. After a couple of days, this symptom will definitely appear.
If a sore throat, chest pain, shortness of breath are observed for a long time, but there is no cough, you need to undergo an examination to find out the cause of this phenomenon. Based on the results, the doctor prescribes treatment.
Prevention
Due to the fact that bronchitis is 99% of cases a viral disease, it is difficult to completely eliminate it from your list of he alth problems. Doctors advise:
- During the flu epidemic, avoid being in crowded places.
- Strengthen immunity.
- Go in for sports.
- Go outdoors at least once a week.
- Provide adequate humidity in your home.
- Make he althy eating habits.
- Exclude stress.
- Quit smoking.
- Organize the right routine of the day.
- Ventilate your home often.
- At the first sign of bronchitis, do not take antibiotics.
These simple methods will help to resist the disease, and if it does occur, will contribute to a speedy recovery.
