Asthma & COPD.... Matt can you look at this??

[Guest guest]

So today in school one of our professors kept lumping asthma into COPD. Later, one of the respiratory tech instructors came up to our class and she did it too. In the begining of my EMT days they said Asthma was part of COPD, but then they changed the cirriculum and said that because asthma related airway obstruction is reversible (in most cases) it is not COPD. I asked the RT instructor why they kept saying asthma was part of COPD and explained why I had been taught during EMT. She said that its because of the potential damage asthma does.

I just got done looking it up on National Jewish's webpage and they dont classify asthma as part of COPD. Mayo Clinic does say that asthma can become COPD (which Ive heard of that). So...the question I am left with is...IS asthma considered to be COPD or not??

The reason I ask is b.c they are instructing our class not to give more than 2LPM Oxygen to COPDers b/c you will make them more hypoxic. But, if an asthmatic comes in with breathing issues, isnt that contradictive? Ive never been taught not to give asthmatics more than 2L:PM Ox, but thats what they said in class today because they are classifying asthmatics as being COPD. Now Im just plain confused.

Ann