What is the Difference Between Restrictive and Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

The key difference between restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease is that restrictive pulmonary disease involves difficulty in fully expanding the lungs with air, while obstructive pulmonary disease involves difficulty in fully exhaling all the air from the lungs.

Pulmonary disease is a type of disease that affects the lungs and other parts of the respiratory system. It may be caused by infection, smoking tobacco, breathing in second-hand tobacco smoke, radon, asbestos, and other forms of pollutants. Pulmonary disease is mainly divided into two types as restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease.

CONTENTS

1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Restrictive Pulmonary Disease
3. What is Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
4. Similarities – Restrictive and Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
5. Restrictive vs Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in Tabular Form
6. Summary – Restrictive vs Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

What is Restrictive Pulmonary Disease?

People who suffer from restrictive pulmonary disease are unable to fill their lungs fully with air. Therefore, the lungs of these people are restricted from fully expanding. This condition is a result of a condition that causes stiffness in the lungs. Sometimes, stiffness of the chest wall, weak muscles, or damaged nerves can result in the restriction in the expansion of the lung. Some conditions that cause restrictive pulmonary disease include interstitial lung disease, sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease, obesity, scoliosis, and neuromuscular diseases like muscular dystrophy or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The symptoms of this disease may include shortness of breath, cough, and anxiety or depression.

Restrictive pulmonary disease is diagnosed through medical history, physical examination, pulmonary function test, chest X-ray, CT scan, bronchoscopy, and lung biopsies. Furthermore, treatment options for restrictive pulmonary disease may include medications such as esbriet (pirfenidone), ofev (nintedanib), corticosteroids (such as prednisone), azathioprine, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate, supplemental oxygen therapy, non-invasive positive pressure ventilation (BiPAP), and lifestyle changes (weight loss and exercises).

What is Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

People with obstructive pulmonary disease have shortness of breath due to difficulty exhaling all the air from the lungs. This is due to damage to the lungs or narrowing of the airways inside the lungs. In this disease, after a full exhalation, abnormally high amounts of air still linger in the lungs. The conditions that cause obstructive pulmonary disease include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, bronchiectasis, and cystic fibrosis. The symptoms of this condition may include frequent coughing or wheezing, excess phlegm or sputum, shortness of breath, trouble taking a deep breath, and anxiety.

Moreover, obstructive pulmonary disease can be diagnosed through medical history, physical examination, spirometry, peak expiratory flow (PEF) test, fractional exhaled nitric oxide test (FeNO) test, arterial blood gas test, CT scan, and chest X-ray. Furthermore, treatment options for obstructive pulmonary disease may include medicines that relax smooth muscles and improve airflows (bronchodilators) such as albuterol, ipratropium, formoterol, salmeterol tiotropium, combined medications like combivent respimat, duoneb, anoro ellipta, and advair, theophylline, inhaled corticosteroids, oral corticosteroids, montelukast, lifestyle changes like regular exercises and oxygen therapy.

What are the Similarities Between Restrictive and Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

• Restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease are two types of pulmonary (lung) diseases.
• Both diseases may have similar symptoms, like shortness of breath, coughing, and anxiety.
• They can be caused by underlying conditions.
• Both conditions can be diagnosed through physical examination, pulmonary function test, imaging test, etc.
• They are treated through specific medications.

What is the Difference Between Restrictive and Obstructive Pulmonary Disease?

Restrictive pulmonary disease is a type of lung disease characterized by difficulty in fully expanding the lungs with air, while obstructive pulmonary disease is a type of lung disease characterized by difficulties in fully exhaling all the air in the lungs. Thus, this is the key difference between restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease. Furthermore, restrictive pulmonary disease is a result of the stiffness of the lung, stiffness of the chest wall, weak muscles, or damaged nerves. On the other hand, obstructive pulmonary disease is a result of damage to the lungs or narrowing of the airways inside the lungs.

The below infographic presents the differences between restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease in tabular form for side-by-side comparison.

Summary – Restrictive vs Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease are two different types of pulmonary diseases. These pulmonary diseases can be triggered by underlying conditions and may have similar symptoms, such as shortness of breath, coughing, anxiety, etc. Restrictive pulmonary disease is characterized by difficulty in fully expanding the lungs with air. Obstructive pulmonary disease is characterized by difficulties in fully exhaling all the air in the lungs. So, this summarizes the difference between restrictive and obstructive pulmonary disease.

Reference:

1. “Restrictive vs. Obstructive Lung Disease.” WebMD.
2. “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).” World Health Organization, World Health Organization.

Image Courtesy:

1. “2 SVH Lung Health Interstitial Lung Disease final 1080” By Anatomyclassproj1 – Own work (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Illustration” By NIH Image Gallery (CC BY-NC 2.0) via Flickr