Alcoholic lung disease is a lung disease caused by excessive alcohol consumption. The term 'alcoholic lung disease' is not a generally accepted medical diagnosis, and "the relationship between alcohol abuse and acute lung injury is largely unknown, even by lung researchers".
Chronic alcohol intake damages some critical cellular functions in the lungs. This cellular disorder leads to increased susceptibility to serious complications of lung disease. Recent research mentions alcoholic lung disease comparable to liver disease in alcohol-related deaths. Alcoholics have a higher risk of developing acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and experience a higher mortality rate than ARDS when compared with non-alcoholics.
Alcohol abuse can cause susceptibility to infection after major trauma to the lungs/respiratory system. This creates an increased risk of gastric acid aspiration, microbes from the upper part of the throat, decreased mucosal clearance from pathogenic bacteria from the upper airways and impaired lung defender defenses. This increased colonization by pathogenic organisms, combined with acute alcohol intoxicating effects and subsequent depression of reflexes of typically protective vomiting and cough, leads to more frequent and severe pneumonia from gram-negative organisms. Defects in the function of the upper airway clearance mechanism in alcoholic patients have been detected.
Video Alcoholic lung disease
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection that affects the pulmonary parenchyma and oxygenation. When a patient with pneumonia is an alcoholic, the mortality rate exceeds 50% if they are placed in intensive care (ICU). According to Kershaw, C 2008 page 1, "[a] in 2001, pneumonia was the sixth most common cause of death in the United States". Alcoholics are at increased risk for infection with gram-negative pathogens that damage tissue or for the spread of bacteria in the blood.
Maps Alcoholic lung disease
Mechanism
The mechanism of alcoholic lung disease is:
- Alcohol metabolism reduces the antioxidant levels of glutathione in the lungs.
- Damage to cell oxidation damages the ability of the lungs to secrete fluid.
- Oxidative damage to cells reduces the immune response.
- Oxidative damage to cells leads to reduced ability to recover from injury.
This chemical change is a negative compound of mechanical effects and microbiology of alcoholism in the respiratory system. These include impaired vomiting reflexes and ciliary function and most likely colonies of pneumococcal bacteria in the upper respiratory system.
Although lung damage from smoking and concurrent drug use is often indistinguishable from alcoholic lung disease, there is support to consider alcoholic lung disease as an independent syndrome. Over the last decade, evidence from epistemological studies has shown that alcohol abuse alone can increase by four-fold the risk of acute respiratory distress syndrome.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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