Question | Answer |
What is coughing a reflex to? | Irritation of trachea and bronchial vessels. |
What does coughing do? | Clears stuff out of airways (involves the mucous elevator) |
What can be a cardinal sign of respiratory problems/disease? | Coughing |
What is sputum? | Spit |
Excess mucous triggers what? | Coughing. |
What does yellow sputum suggest? | Infections (Lungs are easily infected). |
what does green sputum tell us? | Pus - Neutrophils are responding to a problem. Neutrophils release green chemical and pus indicates that infections are occurring deeper in the lungs. |
Throat clearing usually produces sputum from what area of body? | nasal passages or sinuses. (higher areas) |
Pink, frothy sputum can indicate what? | acute pulmonary edema. (can come from surfactant - pt is coughing deep). |
What color does hemoptysis look when it is coming from the lower lungs? As opposed to blood from the nose or gut? | Blood from lower lungs is usually frothy and bright red. Blood from the nose or gut is dark, not frothy. |
What generally is the cause of coughing pure blood? What about sputum with blood IN it? | Pure blood is bad - tuberculosis. Sputum with blood in it can be from an infection. |
What is the definition of dyspnea? | Difficulty breathing. (one's sense of being out of breath - subjective) |
Dyspnea is a common indication of what types of problems? | Cardiovascular, respiratory or both (or really anything). |
Dyspnea can lead to _____________ which can lead to _____________. | Dyspnea can lead to hyperventilation which can lead to blowing off more CO2 than necessary. |
What is a possible cause of people who are getting enough air and still experiencing dyspnea? | It's possible that the receptors in the chest can "misread" conditions, and tell the brain that not enough air is coming in, even though there is. |
What is orthopnea? How is this often measured? | Dyspnea when leaning back (or lying down). Can be measured by the number of pillows under the head required to alleviate the sensation (more pillows = worse orthopnea) |
Why do patients with CHF or other heart problems often experience dyspnea? | They are having trouble returning blood to the central blood vessels from peripheral vessels. |
What is paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea? | Dyspnea that happens in the middle of the night, long after the patient has lain down - fluid collected in the peripheral tissues is returned to the central veins, which produces hypertension. Pulmonary HT and pulmonary edema = dyspnea. |
What is CP that is associated with lung disease? | Pleurisy |
What is pleurisy? | The parietal layer of the pleura gets damaged by infection or ischemia and produces the pain. |
What causes the pain in pleurisy? | Damage of the parietal layer causes pain . Damage to the visceral layer does not generate pain (no pain receptors). |
What can finger clubbing tell us? | Finger clubbing shows up mostly in pulmonary diseases, but can also occur in Cardiovascular diseases. |
What is cyanosis? | Patient appears blue in their skin and/or mucous membranes. |
When a tourniquet is placed on a persons arm, why does the distal part become blue? | Hemoglobin appears blue inside a person's body when it is oxygen deficient. |
What causes cyanosis? | Pt has relatively deoxygenated blood. (Reduced Hb in blood is blue) |
Central cyanosis vs. Peripheral cyanosis. | Central: occurs because of insufficient oxygenation of blood in the lungs causes face, earlobes, under tongue and lips to turn blue. Peripheral - blood flow through an area is abnormal, producing reduced Hb in that area. |
What is hypoxemia? | Low blood oxygen, detected by arterial oxygen levels and low Hb saturation. (hypoxic in blood and body - will see cyanosis) |
What is hypoxia? | Deficient tissue oxygenation. |
What has low oxygen in the tissues even though the carrying capacity of the blood is normal? | Hypoxic hypoxia. |
What results from deficient carrying capacity - (anything that reduces hemoglobin)? | Anemic hypoxia |
what results when cardiac output is reduced (pressure, volume, or maybe both) with normal blood oxygen capacity? | Circulatory hypoxia. |
what happens when cells can't use oxygen that's being made available to it? | Histotoxic hypoxia (cyanide effects on the electron transport chain). |
Arterial CO2 partial pressure is very near to alveolar CO2 partial pressure, which is ____________. | 40mmHg. |
What is hypercapnia? | Arterial CO2 partial pressure above 45 mm Hg. |
What causes hypercapnia? | This happens because not enough air is exchanging in the alveoli. This will always lead to at least some hypoxia. (not unloading CO2 quick enough) |
What is hypocapnia? | Arterial CO2 partial pressure is less than 35 mm Hg. |