Body system: Respiratory SystemRegulation: 38 CFR § 4.97DBQ: DBQ RESP Respiratory Conditions (Other than Tuberculosis and Sleep Apnea)
Chronic bronchitis is a long-term lung condition where your airways are constantly inflamed and produce too much mucus, making it hard to breathe. The VA rates this condition from 10% to 100% based on how well your lungs function through breathing tests and other measurements. Higher ratings go to veterans whose lung function is more severely impacted - a 100% rating means your lungs work at less than 40% of what's expected, while a 10% rating means they're working at 71-80% capacity.
Rating levels
- 100% — You qualify for this rating if breathing tests show your lungs are working at less than 40% of what's expected for someone your age and size, or if you can only consume less than 15 ml/kg/min of oxygen during exercise due to heart or lung problems. You also qualify if you have serious heart complications from your lung condition like right heart failure (cor pulmonale), enlarged right heart chamber (right ventricular hypertrophy), or high blood pressure in your lungs (pulmonary hypertension), or if you've had episodes where you couldn't breathe well enough on your own (acute respiratory failure) or need to use oxygen at home.
- 60% — Your breathing tests must show that your lungs are working at only 40-55% of what they should be for someone your age and size. This includes tests that measure how much air you can blow out in one second (FEV-1), what percentage of your total lung capacity you can exhale quickly (FEV-1/FVC ratio), how well oxygen moves from your lungs into your blood (DLCO), or how much oxygen your body can use during exercise (maximum oxygen consumption). At this level, your chronic bronchitis significantly limits your breathing capacity to about half of normal function.
- 30% — Your lung function tests must show that you're breathing at 56-70% of what's expected for someone your age and size. This is measured through breathing tests where you blow into a machine that checks how much air you can push out of your lungs in one second (FEV-1), what percentage of your total lung capacity you can exhale quickly (FEV-1/FVC ratio), or how well your lungs transfer oxygen into your blood (DLCO test). At this level, your chronic bronchitis significantly limits your breathing capacity but you still retain more than half of normal lung function.
- 10% — To qualify for this rating level, your lung function tests must show mild impairment in one of three key measurements. Either your FEV-1 (the amount of air you can forcefully exhale in one second) is 71-80% of what's expected for someone your age and size, or your FEV-1/FVC ratio (how much air you can blow out compared to your total lung capacity) is 71-80%, or your DLCO test (which measures how well oxygen moves from your lungs into your blood) shows 66-80% of normal function.