[Chronic bronchitis]

Chronic bronchitis (CB) is diagnosed from symptoms. It is important for the diagnosis to distinguish from other diseases accompanying similar symptoms. Recently, some diseases such as diffuse panbronchiolitis (DPB) have been recognized to have some characteristics different from CB, which used to include these diseases. The pathogenesis of CB is mostly smoking and to quit smoking is the basic and most important therapy. Target of medication in CB consists of hypersecretion, airway limitation and infection. A 14-membered ring macrolide such as erythromycin has been found to be effective in some patients with CB.