What Types of Diseases Decrease Lung Compliance?
In medicine, compliance and elasticity are different ways to describe how stretchy, springy or flexible something is. The more compliant the lungs are, the more they are able to stretch in response to a force, and the lower the compliance, the less they stretch in response. Lung diseases that impair compliance stop the lungs from expanding as easily so more force is required to get them to expand to a given volume. Two classes of lung disease cause decreased compliance: restrictive interstitial lung diseases and diseases associated with fluid in the lungs.
