The medical community first used the phrase chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in 1965. Before that year, doctors called it nonspecific chronic pulmonary disease or diffuse obstructive pulmonary syndrome.
The two classic phenotypes remain emphysema and chronic bronchitis though modern understanding acknowledges significant overlap between them. Emphysema involves enlarged airspaces where walls have broken down causing permanent damage to lung tissue while chronic bronchitis is defined as a productive cough present for at least three months each year for two years.
Women appear more susceptible than men to harmful effects of tobacco smoke for the same amount of cigarette smoking. Tobacco smoking remains the primary risk factor globally with about 20% of smokers developing the disease.
A ratio less than 70% defines the disease in symptomatic individuals over age 35 to 40. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence criteria require FEV1 less than 80% of predicted values.
Giovanni Battista Morgagni made one of the earliest recorded descriptions of emphysema in 1769 noting lungs turgid particularly from air. T. Bonet described voluminous lungs back in 1679 marking early anatomical observations before René Laennec used the term emphysema in his 1837 book A Treatise on the Diseases of the Chest.