CRS 3 Flashcards
Describe the clinical signs of lower airway disease
- Coughing
- Tachypnoea
- Increased depth of breathing
- Listlessness
- Dyspnoea
- Secretions
- Crackling or wheezing on auscultation
List the diagnostic tools which may be of use in investigating lower respiratory disease
- Ultrasonography
- Radiography
- MRI and CT
- Swabs
- Endotracheal wash
- Biopsy
- Fine needle aspirate
- Bronchoalveolar lavage
- Top 3: radiograph, guarded swab, endotracheal wash
Describe how you would carry out a radiograph of the lower respiratory system of a dog or cat
- Left and right lateral
- Dorsoventral
- Label, contast, Kv and Mv
- Hold lungs at full inflation
- Consider safety of person inflating lungs
- Must include cranial part of diaphragm
Describe the effects of bronchoconstriction on ventilation/lung parameters including compliance, resistance, tidal volume, work of breathing, gas exchange and arterial oxygenation
- Less air reaching alveoli
- Compliance reduced
- Resistance increased
- Tidal volume decreased
- Work of breathing increased
- Gas exchange decreased
- Arterial oxygenation may be lowered in an attack
- Closing capacity becomes an active process in an asthma attack
List the effects of restrictive bronchial disease which may increase the risk of general anaesthesia
- Rate of oxygen uptake is reduced
- Reduction of tidal volume and lumen of small airways
- Great risk of asphyxiation
- Reduction in gas exchange rate
- Greater risk of oxygen starvation
- Severe reduced arterial oxygen
Explain the effects of recumbency on respiratory function
- In VD, lungs pushed against dorsal side of animal
- Reduces capacity to inflate
- Problematic if at risk or already in respiratory distress
Describe the effects of anaesthetic agents on respiratory function
- Airway obstruction (relaxation of muscles)
- Reduced ventilation (due to reduced tidal volume or rate of respiration)
- Decreased functional residual capacity (relaxation of diaphragm and intercostal muscles)
- Increased V/Q mismatch and shunting
State the methods by which anaesthetic risks to threspiratory function can be minimised before and during eh procedure
- Pre-oxygenating to maximise FRC
- Antimuscarinic drugs before to reduce saliva production
- Mechanical ventilation
- Not using 100% oxygen
- Maintaining perfusion pressure by giving fluids
Describe the relevance of circuit factors for calculating fresh gas requirements under anaesthesia
Needed to calculate flow rate for gas, to ensure patient is not breathing in the CO2 it has exhaled
Describe possible radiographic changes associated with feline asthma including air trapping, bronchial pattern and consolidation
- Bronchial thickening - doughnuts on DV view
- Consolidation and air trapping also common
- See as flattened diaphragm, increased distance between cardiac silhouette and diaphragm
Outline the pharmacologial therapeutic options for the management of inflammatory restrictive airway disease and how each works
- 2 classes
- Steroids and bronchodilators
- Can be used in feline inhaler
- Steroids: anti-inflammatory, reduce mucus production (prednisolone, dexamethosone and fluticasone)
- Bronchodilators: stabilise mast cell membrane, inhibit ACh release, promote mucus clearing (albuterol)
Outline non-pharmacological therapeutic options for the management of inflammatory restictive airway disease
- Control weight
- Limit use of pollutants
Explain how the structure of the thorax facilitates breathing
- Air flows from high to low pressure
- Thorax must have lower pressure than atmospheric to have air flow in
- Increas lung volum by thoracic expansion
- Inspiratory muscles
- Diaphragm contracts - flattens and moves caudally
- External intercostals contract, ribs cranially and outwards
- Increases volume of thoracic cavity
- In expiration, inspiratory muscles relax, dome of diaphragm pushed back by inspiratory pressure, ribs recoil
- Pleural membranes attach lungs to thoracic wall
- When thorax expands, pleural membranes expand, lungs expand
Explain how the calibre of the airways affects air flow
- 2 factors to increase resistance to flow in airways: calibre of airways and turbulence
- Calibre decreases as go down, maintains resistance to flow at a constant level
- Combined cross sectional area of 2 daughter airways always exceeds that of parent airways
- Air flow remains constant
- Laminar or turbulent air flow
Explain how laminar and turbulent air flow occur
- Laminar: resistance is directly proportional to length of tube and inversely proportional to internal radius of tube
- Increased resistance means pressure must be increased to maintain flow
- Turbulence can also occur
- Is greatest in trache and bronchi
- Increasing branching along airway increases overall diameter and therefore turbulence decreases
Define anatomical dead space
An airway in which no appreciable gas exchange can occur
Describe how smooth muscle in airways regulates dead space and resistance to flow
- Bronchial muscle consists of spiral bands of smooth muscle
- Criss cross left and right around bronchi and bronchioles
- Particularly well developed in wall of bronchioles
- Sympathetic system relaxes smooth muscle and spiral design allows reduction of airway length and diameter
- Enables normal lung to balance dead space against resistance to air flow
- Internal radius of conducting airways must not be too small
- Increases resistance to air flow and turbulence
- Volume of CAs must not be too great
- Would enlarge anatomical dead space and lead to unecessary energy expenditure
Explain the role of the pleura in ventilation of the lungs
- Pleura connects lungs to thoracic wall
- When thorax expands so do pleura and lungs
- Draws in air
- When thorax collapses, so do pleura and lungs pushing air out
Outline the importance of complaince and surface tension in lung function
- Compliance = change in volume of a structure for each unit change in pressure
- Elastance is retractive force that distension of structure generates
- All tubes within lung are subject to transverse and longitudinal traction
- Increases volume of airways
- Compliance must be great enough to allow maximum passage of air
- Surface tension increases in smaller spheres
- Reduced by production of surfactant
- More surfactant in smaller alveoli so pressure is same between smaller and larger alveoli
Describe the structural defence mechanisms of the pulmonary system
- Branching airways: turbulence, irritant receptors, cough reflex initiated
- Bronchi surrounded by cartilaginous rings and smooth muscle: bronchi constrict, held open a little
- Intimate relationship between blood and airways: rapid resopnse to particle deposition, lymphocytes adjacent to site of deposition
Describe the functional defence mechanisms of the pulmonary system
- Mucociliary escalator
- Secreteory fluid: mucin and surfactant ensure lungs stay inflated, mucociliary escalator
- Cough reflex: expel particles
- Bronchoconstriction and dilation: entrance of particles, more open in exercise
Describe the cellular components of host defencesystem in teh lungs
- Intraepithelial lymphocytes: adjacent to site of particle deposition, fast response
- MALT/BALT: located in areas where fast drainage is importat
- Drainage lymph nodes: 4 lymphoid centres, important sites of drainage
- Bronchoalveolar lymphocytes: destroy pathogens on site, prevent infection
Describe how inflammatory mediators interact with mechanisms of bronchiolar spasm
- Inappropriate release of inflammatory mediators causes bronchiolar spasm
- Inflammaory mediators: histamine, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, bradykinins, cytokines
- Simulate CNS to react and cause bronchiolar spasm
- CNS excites vagus
- Innervated from trachea to bronchioles
- NTs released
- Excite SMCs
- Excitation results in bronchoconstriction
Describe the broad mechanisms of action by potential therapeutic targets to resolve bronchospasm
- Intervene in efferent response with drugs
- Binding of catecholamines to beta adrenergic receptors on smooth muscle cells = bronchodilation
- Clenbuterol: agonistic for beta adrenergic receptors
- INhibit Ach receptors
- Anti-inflammatory drugs
- Cholinergic to stimulate mucus and ciliary motility