22 12-18 Flashcards
*List 3 factors that influence pulmonary ventilation.
Airway resistance, Alveolar surface tension, Lung compliance
Airway resistance
Friction encountered by air in the airways.
As a rule, airway resistance is insignificant. Why?
- Airway diameters in the first part of the conducting system are huge and air low viscosity. 2. As airway get smaller more branches are present. Compliance is the most important factor - airway resistance and surface tension are not factors in healthy people.
Where does the greatest resistance to air flow occur?
Medium sized bronchi.
Alveolar surface tension
Water in the alveoli acts to draw the walls of the alveoli together.
Lung compliance
Determined by two factors:
- distensibility of lung tissue and surrounding thoracic cage
- alveolar surface tension.
Distensibility is high and surfactant keeps surface tension low, so lungs are high compliance. Compliance can be decreased by scar tissue or ↓ surfactant.
What factors increase airway resistance?
.↓ diameter of bronchioles. Histamine, cold air, irritants, parasympathetic
What factors decrease airway resistance?
.↑ diameter of bronchioles. Epi, sympathetic
IRDS
Infant respiratory distress syndrome - lack of surfactant. Synthetic surfactants can be used.
**Tidal volume - TV
The amount of air that moves in and out of the lungs with each breath during quiet breathing (500ml)
**Vital capacity
Tidal + Inspiratory reserve + Expiratory reserve. The total amount of exchangeable air.
Total lung capacity
Sum of all lung volumes
Dead space
Volume of the conducting zone conduits - a volume that never contributes to gas exchange. A significant amount of air simply fills up the volume of the conducting zones (tidal volume of 500 - 350 reaches the alveoli, 150 in trachea/bronchi/ect.)
Charles law
The volume of a given quantity of gas is directly proportional to its absolute temperature.
This helps keep the lungs inflated.
Percentages of O2 transported in blood (by different methods)?
1.5% dissolved in plasma, 98.5% bound to Hb
Dalton’s law of partial pressures
Partial pressures; each gas in a mixture of gases exerts its own pressure as if all the other gases were not present. (total pressure exerted by a mixture of gases is the sum of the pressures exerted by each gas individually)
PB = PN2 + PO2 + PCO2 + PH20 760 = 597 + 159 + 0.3 + 3.7
Henry’s law
States that when a mixture of gases is in contact with a liquid, each gas will dissolve in the liquid in proportion to its partial pressure.
This explains how the plasma concentration of a gas such as oxygen relates to its partial pressure - CO2 is about 20x more soluble in blood than is O2.
Compare atmospheric and alveolar air composition.
Atmospheric:
O2 - 20.9% - 159mm hg,
CO2 - 0.04% - 0.3mm hg,
H2O - 0.46% - 3.7mm hg
Alveoli:
O2 - 13.7% - 104mm hg,
CO2 - 5.2% - 40mm hg,
H2O - 6.2% - 47mm hg.
What causes the differences in composition between alveolar and atmospheric air?
O2 - Lower in alveoli because of diffusion.
CO2 - Higher in alveoli because of diffusion.
H2O - Humidification of air by conducting passageways.
Also, differences in CO2/O2 are caused by a mixture of newly inspired gases and gases remaining in the respiratory passageways between breaths.
Relate Dalton’s and Henry’s laws to events of external respiration.
Dalton’s law: Co2’s partial pressure gradient (45 in blood/40 in alveoli) makes it flow out of blood into alveoli, O2’s partial pressure gradient (40 in blood/104 in alveoli) causes O2 to flow into the blood.
Henry’s law: Co2, with only a small gradient, flows just as easily as O2, which has a steep gradient, because it is 20x more soluble.
Relate Dalton’s and Henry’s laws to events of internal respiration.
Dalton’s law: Co2’s partial pressure gradient (40 in blood/>45 in tissue) makes it flow out of tissue into blood, O2’s partial pressure gradient (less 40 in tissue/100 in blood) causes O2 to flow into tissue.
Henry’s law: Co2, with only a small pressure gradient, flows easily because of its solubility.
3 factors influencing external respiration
- Thickness and surface area of respiratory membrane
- Partial pressure (dalton) and gas solubility (Henry)
- Ventilation-perfusion coupling