By Dr Ananya Mandal, MD Emphysema is a chronic or long term lung
disease. This disease is typically called hyperinflation. What
happens in emphysema? Just like a balloon the lungs are over-
inflated so that they lose their elasticity and elastic recoil.
There are balloon like bullae or blisters in the lung tissues.
Because carbon dioxide is trapped in the bullae, the body is
deprived of fresh air flowing into the lungs. The lungs begin by
compensating by taking deeper breaths. This further expands the
lung tissues and makes it lose its elasticity. With loss of
elasticity more carbon dioxide accumulates in the lungs leaving
less space for fresh air and this leads to shortness of breath.
With time the muscles and ribs begin to expand to contain the
expanded lungs. The diaphragm that lies beneath the lungs and is
normally dome shaped also flattens and lose their functional
capacity. Image is of H&E (haematoxylin and eosin) stained lung
tissue sample taken from an end-stage emphysema patient. Cell
nuclei are blue-