Study suggests millions of long-term smokers have lung disease that defies diagnosis medicalxpress.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medicalxpress.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Millions of Americans with tobacco-related lung disease have symptoms that do not fit any existing tobacco-related disease criteria – including the most common of those, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) – according to a new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco. In the study publishing Aug. 1, 2023, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the research team found that half of the participants with extensive tobacco exposure have persistently high levels of respiratory symptoms, including shortness of breath, daily cough, phlegm, and decreased ability to exercise, but perform well in the breathing tests used to diagnose COPD.