| Deseases |
The following is a list of important medical conditions involving the lung. Many of these are caused or worsened by smoking.
- Lung cancer
- Emphysema is an enlargement of the air spaces in the lung, making it hard to breathe.
- Cystic fibrosis is a hereditary disease which causes the lung to produce abnormally viscous mucus.
- Asthma is an immunological disease which causes the bronchioles to narrow by inflammation and spasm of the lining of the airway wall.
- A pulmonary embolism occurs when a blood clot obstructs an artery leading to the lung.
- Tuberculosis is a transmittable bacterial infection of the lung, the most common infectous disease today.
- Pneumonia is an infection of the lung, caused by bacteria, viruses or fungi.
- Bronchitis is an inflammation of the bronchi.
- A collapsed lung (pneumothorax) can occur when one or both walls of the pleural cavity are penetrated by injury, allowing air to enter.
- In pulmonary edema fluid from the capillaries enters the alveoli. This can be caused by weakness of the left side of the heart (resulting in a blood holdup in the lung), altitude sickness, or rarely inhaling toxic gases.
- It is now also possible to transplant lungs, even together with the heart.
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