Chronic Bronchitis

THE most common cause of inadequate therapy of chronic bronchitis is failure of recognition. There has been a reluctance to consider that the symptoms of chronic cough and phlegm production may add up to a disease worthy of concern. Persons manifesting these symptoms may be diagnosed as being normal subjects, or as having "smoker's cough," mild bronchitis, chronic bronchitis or bronchiectasis. This variability of interpretation by different physicians led investigators in this field to try to standardize the nosology so that chronic bronchitis — and other chronic bronchopulmonary diseases — would be properly diagnosed. However, even when the proper diagnosis . . .