Why does emphysema cause polycythemia

The loss of elasticity can eventually become severe enough to be classified as emphysema. Air pollution can also irritate the lungs and cause emphysema, although pollution alone is rarely the cause. There may be few symptoms at the beginning of the disease. As the air sacs become damaged, shortness of breath with physical activity is usually the first symptom.

As emphysema progresses, you may experience shortness of breath even when you're resting. This can make normal activities such as eating difficult, which can lead to a reduced appetite and weight loss. Other symptoms include chest tightness, fatigue, and chronic cough, or your fingernails or lips may turn blue or gray with exertion.

As the air sacs become more stretched, air gets trapped in pockets called bullae that form in the lungs. This can produce a characteristic "barrel chest," which is the shape of the hyper-expanded chest. Chronic lung damage prevents the heart from circulating blood normally.

Lung damage can cause pressure elevations in the part of the heart that moves blood through the lungs. This is called pulmonary hypertension and is suspected when people with emphysema develop leg swelling, abdominal bloating, or prominent pulsations in the veins in the neck.

As the heart tries to pump blood into the damaged lungs, it can cause enlargement and strain on the right side of the heart that can lead to heart failure. Bullae can rupture outside the lung into the pleural space the space that surrounds the lung. As the air accumulates outside the lung, it may result in a life-threatening condition called pneumothorax — a collapsed lung.

The body may also attempt to compensate for the low oxygen level by increasing the number of red blood cells secondary polycythemia. Sometimes, the increase in red blood cells can be so severe that it causes blood clots. A doctor who suspects emphysema will likely want to know your history and will also perform lung function tests. The tests may include:. Secondary polycythemia is the overproduction of red blood cells. It causes your blood to thicken , which increases the risk of a stroke.

The primary function of your red blood cells is to carry oxygen from your lungs to all the cells in your body. Red blood cells are constantly being manufactured in your bone marrow. If you move to a higher altitude where oxygen is rarer, your body will sense this and begin to produce more red blood cells after a few weeks.

Secondary polycythemia means that some other condition is causing your body to produce too many red blood cells. Primary polycythemia is genetic. Secondary polycythemia can also have a genetic cause. Polycythemia refers to all the types of blood cells — red cells, white cells, and platelets.

Erythrocytes are the red cells only, making erythrocytosis the accepted technical name for this condition. Finally, some diseases can cause your body to overproduce the hormone EPO, which stimulates red blood cell production. Some of the conditions that can cause this are:. In rare cases , the cause of secondary polycythemia can be genetic. This is usually due to mutations that cause your red blood cells to take up abnormal amounts of oxygen. A recently discovered risk is having a high red cell distribution width RDW , which means that the size of your red blood cells can vary a lot.

This is also known as anisocytosis. Your doctor will want to determine both secondary polycythemia and its underlying cause. Your treatment will depend on the underlying cause. The doctor will take a medical history, ask you about your symptoms, and physically examine you.

One of the secondary polycythemia indications is a hematocrit test. This is part of a complete blood panel. Hematocrit is a measure of the concentration of red blood cells in your blood. If your hematocrit is high and you also have high EPO levels, it could be a sign of secondary polycythemia.

Patients with polycythemia are at increased risk for blood clots and bleeding. Several conditions can cause polycythemia. People can develop polycythemia as a consequence of chronic lung diseases like emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, or sleep apnea.

In these patients, decreased oxygen from poor lung function triggers overproduction of red blood cells to carry more oxygen to the body tissues.

Successful treatment of the lung disease results in improved blood oxygen, leading to decrease red cell numbers and improvement in polycythemia. The lung disease is treated with medications, pulmonary rehabilitation exercise, or, for sleep apnea, machine-assisted breathing at night. If treatment of the underlying lung disease does not correct the excess red cells, patients may require frequent blood drawing, similar to a blood donation, to correct the red blood cell excess.