Diagnosis and Testing for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) - bronchitis, emphysema

Diagosing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema) is fairly easy, because the symptoms are so obvious: shortness of breath, cough, sputum (phlegm, mucus). To complete the diagnosis, spirometry testing, an ex-ray of your chest to look at any lung damage, and a blood test to measure the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood will be done.

This article is available in French.