Obstructive airways disease Flashcards
What are examples of respiratory symptoms? (5 points)
- Cough
- Wheeze
- Stridor
- Dyspnoea
- Pain
What is a productive cough?
- Produces something (sputum, blood)
What is a dry cough?
- Doesn’t produce anything
What is a wheeze?
- Expiratory noise (noise you make when you breath out)
- Can’t fake a wheeze
What is a Stridor?
- Inspriatory noise
- Usually blockage in the airway and you are chocking
What is Dyspnoea?
- Distress on effort
- Distress when breathing as you know your breathing is not working well
Why might pain be a respiratory symptom?
- Could be general or inspiratory
- Pain when you breath in - because you have inflammatory changes in you r chest wall
What are examples of respiratory signs that you would want to check? (5 points)
- Chest movement with respiration (want to ensure its the same on each side)
- Rate of respiration (12-15/min)
- Air entry - symmetrical? reduced?
- Vocal resonance
- Percussion note - resonant (drum like), dull (solid)
What is vocal resonance?
- The sound of ordinary speck through a chest wall
- If stick your ear on someone’s chest and listen to someone speaking sounds odd if you have air in the lungs
- If you have fluid in the lungs and do this with a stethoscope and the person speaks then you can hear them pretty well
What are examples of respiratory investigations you can do? (5 points)
- Sputum examination
- CXR - chest radiograph
- Pulmonary function (lung function tests)
- Bronchoscopy
- VQ scan - ventilation/perfusion mismatch
When doing pulmonary function testing, what can you look for? (3 points)
- PERF - maximum flow rate
- FEV1 - forced expiratory volume
- FEV1/VC - measure of resp. function
What is a common example of a respiratory infection?
- Pneumonia
What are 3 examples of airflow obstruction (respiratory diseases)?
- Asthma
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Restrictive pulmonary change
What is a ‘gas exchange failure’ respiratory disease?
- Even when ventilate the lungs properly, don’t have the ability to get gas into the blood - reduced alveoli
- Loss of the space for blood and gas to meet so there isn’t enough space to get the oxygen into the blood
- This can be cased by a reduced surface area, fibrosis or fluid in the lungs
Can tumours cause respiratory diseases?
- Yes
What are 2 examples of diseases that cause chronic airflow obstruction?
- Asthma & COPD
What 3 things can make chronic airflow obstruction diseases worse (exacerbating factors)?
- Infections
- Exercise
- Cold air
Is asthma a reversible or irreversible airflow obstruction?
- Reversible
What percentage of children and adults have asthma?
- Children = 5-10%
- Adults = 2-5%
What is asthma known as?
- ‘bronchial hyper reactivity’
What happens to the airways in someone with asthma? (3 points)
- Contraction of smooth muscle
- Inflammation and swelling
- Excessive mucous production (thick mucous)
- All cause narrowing of the tube
What is the triad of mechanisms that cause asthma?
- Airway smooth muscle contraction
- Inflammation of the mucosa (swelling)
- Increased mucous secretion
What are 3 signs of asthma?
- Cough
- Wheeze
- Shortness of breath
What is ‘diurnal variation’ in asthma?
- Follows a pattern depending on the time of day
- Reguulated to some extent by circadian rhythms
- Worse early morning
What is peak expiratory flow rate?
- PEFR is the max flow rate generated during a forceful exhalation, starting from full lung inhalation
PEFR will vary at different times of the day. Why is this important when comparing PEFR?
- Have to compare like with like so have to compare at the same time every day
What are common triggers of asthma? (4 points)
- Infections
- Environmental stimuli (dust, smoke and chemicals at work)
- Cold air
- ‘Atopy’
What is atopy?
- A genetically determined state of hypersensitivity to environmental allergens