Pathology of Pulmonary Infections Flashcards
Healthy people are mainly infected by what kind of microorganisms?
Viruses/aggressive organisms
What are the different categories of pathogens?
- primary
- facultative
- opportunistic
The capacity of a host to resist infection depends on what factors?
- State of host defence mechanisms
- Age of patient
What effect will being immunocompromised have on a patient’s likelihood to have an infection?
It increases the patient’s susceptibility (particularly from opportunistic pathogens)
What are the most common upper respiratory tract infections?
- Coryza (common cold)
- Sore throat syndrome
- Acute Laryngotracheobronchitis (croup)
- Laryngitis
- Sinusitis
- Acute Epiglottitis
As a result of vaccination, what pathogen is increasing responsible for epiglottitis?
Group A beta-haemolytic streptococci
What are the most common lower respiratory tract infections?
- Bronchitis
- Bronchiolitis
- Pneumonia
Aside from the general immune system and respiratory tract infections, what is the main respiratory tract defence mechanism?
The macrophage-mucociliary escalator system
In normal conditions, is the lower respiratory tract sterile or non-sterile?
Sterile
What cells are responsible for trapping dirt allowing it to be removed from the lower respiratory tract?
Alveolar Macrophages
What is the function of ciliated cells in the respiratory tract?
To carry a layer of mucous upwards on the mucociliary escalator from the lower respiratory tract to the larynx
What happens to the mucous layer containing any dirt or foreign particles once it is swept by the mucociliary escalatory into the larynx?
It is swallowed or spat out
What kind of infection is often fatal to people in a flu epidemic due to disruption of the mucociliary escalator?
Secondary bacterial infection
What is the danger of cellular bronchitis, especially in small children?
Inflammatory exudate produced during infection can close off the airway very rapidly
Pneumonia can be classed in what three categories?
- Anatomical
- Aetiological
- Microbiological
Microbiological classification can be used to do what?
Confirm what organism is causing infection and allow a suitable treatment to be given
Under what headings can pneumonia be classed, aetiologically?
- Community acquired
- Hospital Acquired
- Pneumonia in the Immunocompromised
- Atypical
- Aspiration
- Recurrent
What is the most common aetiological classification of pneumonia?
Community acquire pneumonia
What two aetiological classes of pneumonia are generally caused by aggressive organisms?
Community acquired
Hospital acquired
What aetiological class of pneumonia is caused by abnormal organisms?
Atypical
A pneumonia infection in a patient with another condition e.g. cardiac failure can lead to what in the lungs making it difficult to clear the infection?
Accumulation of secretions
What anatomical distributions of pneumonia are there?
- Bronchopneumonia
- Segmental Pneumonia
- Lobar Pneumonia
What form of pneumonia shows acute inflammation at a pathological level and spots of infection and formation of pus in the lungs?
Bronchopneumonia
What is often seen on a chest x-ray of a patient with bronchopneumonia relating to the focal nature of consolidation?
Bilateral basal patchy opacification
What is consolidation?
The replacement of air in the lungs by another substance
What is seen in lobar pneumonia?
Consolidation/infection of an entire lobe
The extensiveness of lobar and broncho-pneumonia is dependent on what feature of the causative organism?
The aggressiveness
Give a complication of pneumonia
- Pleurisy
- Pleural effusion
- Empyema
- Lung abscess
- Bronchiectasis
- Organising pneumonia (mass lesion/cryptogenic organising pneumonia/constrictive bronchiolitis)