Other smoking-affected pulmonary diseases

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United S tates. Smoking adversely affects many organ systems, but especially the lun g. Carcinoma of the lung and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease account for most smoking-associated respiratory morbidity and mortality, and their association with smoking is both well established and widely recognized. Ci garette smoking also is associated with differences in the incidence, sever ity, or natural history of a broad array of other respiratory illnesses, ra nging from the common cold to pneumothorax, pulmonary hemorrhage, and vario us interstitial lung diseases. Interestingly, while the general effect of s moking on respiratory diseases is adverse, in the cases of sarcoidosis and hypersensitivity pneumonitis smoking may actually be associated with a decr ease in the incidence of disease. In this article, the author briefly discu sses some of the pulmonary and systemic effects of smoking that might media te its effects on an array of lung diseases, then comprehensively reviews l ess common or less well-recognized smoking-affected lung diseases such as p ulmonary infections, spontaneous pneumothorax, Goodpasture's syndrome, eosi nophilic granuloma and other interstitial lung diseases, and pulmonary meta static disease.