There are numerous complications associated with lung disease. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health or NIH, millions of Americans have lung disease, and as a whole, lung disease is one of the top three leading causes of death in the United States. Lung disease is a general term encompassing many disorders that affect the lungs, including asthma, tuberculosis and lung cancer.
Shortness of Breath
Shortness of breath or dyspnea is a complication of lung disease. According to the Merck Manuals website, dyspnea is the unpleasant sensation of difficulty in breathing, and a person who has a lung disease typically experiences dyspnea with physical exertion. During physical exertion or exercise, a person's body produces more carbon dioxide and uses more oxygen. The brain's respiratory center increases a person's breathing rate when blood oxygen levels are low and blood carbon dioxide levels are elevated. However, if a person's lung function is impaired, as it often is with lung diseases, even mild physical exertion can dramatically boost breathing rates and shortness of breath. In fact, the Merck Manuals website states that dyspnea is so unpleasant it will often cause a person to avoid exercise or exertion. As lung disorders progress, many people experience dyspnea at rest as well as during exertion.
Cyanosis
Cyanosis also a complication of lung disease. The Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center or CCHMC states that cyanosis is a blue or purple hue seen on the lips, tongue and fingernails of a person with lung disease, and that cyanosis indicates a reduced level of oxygen in the bloodstream that may be caused by a problem with the lungs. According to Merck Manuals, cyanosis can be caused by numerous types of severe lung diseases. The CCHMC notes that central cyanosis---cyanosis that occurs in the central parts of a person's body, including her lips, mouth, head and torso, occurs because the color of blood is affected by the amount of oxygen drawn in by the lungs. Red blood indicates that a person's blood oxygen levels are appropriate, whereas blood that's blue or purple indicates that the blood is poorly oxygenated. When blood flows through small blood vessels or capillaries in the skin, the skin takes on the color of the blood flowing through it. Low blood oxygen levels or hypoxemia can severely disrupt the body's basic functioning.
Pulmonary Hypertension
According to the Mayo Clinic website, many lung diseases create scar tissue in a person's lungs, and scar tissue formation in the lungs can cause pulmonary hypertension or elevated lung blood pressure, which can be a life-threatening complication of lung disease. The Mayo Clinic website notes that, unlike systemic hypertension or increased resistance in the arteries that pump blood to the body's tissues and organs, pulmonary hypertension affects only the lung's arteries. Pulmonary hypertension manifests when lung scar tissue restricts the lung's smallest blood vessels, decreasing blood flow through the lungs and increasing pressure in the pulmonary arteries. According to the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health, pulmonary hypertension gets progressively worse, and there is no cure.
