Pathology of RTI's Flashcards
Lung infections might be the outcome of which opposing factors?
Microorganism pathogenicity
Capacity to resist infection
Population at risk
What can impact the capacity to resist infection?
State of host defence mechanisms
Age of patient
What are the three subdivions of microorganism pathogenicity?
Primary
Facultative
Opportunistic
What UTRI causes the common cold?
Coryza
Wat is another name for acute laryngotracheobronchitis?
Croup
Why is acute epiglottititus particular troubling in very young children?
Epiglottis will swell and may prevent breathing.
Child may suffocate.
Which bacteria causes acute epiglottitus?
Haemophilus influenzae
How does the upper resp. tract act as a filter?
If breathing through the nose, the nasal hair can trap any particles than would otherwise end up in your lungs.
What does the upper resp. tract do to the air?
Warms and moistens it for the lower resp. tract
What happens if the air from the upper resp. tract is not warm/moist?
The macrophage-mucociliary escalator system will not work.
What role do alveolar macrophages do?
-Tissue homeostasis
-Host defence
-Clearance of surfactant and cell debris
-Pathogen recognition
-Initiation and resolution of lung inflammation
-Repair of damaged tissue
->basically they hoover up anything that has got past the URT into the LRT
Describe how sterile the LRT is.
Completely sterile in normal individuals
What do ciliated cells do?
Beat in tandem motion to transport a layer of fluid- mixture of cellular secretions and mucus- out of the cell
What do viral infections do to airways?
Damage the lining of airways
What are most deaths from influenza because of?
Exposure to a secondary infection
What three areas of medicine are required to classify and understand pneumonia?
Anatomical
Aetiological (circumstances)
Microbiological
Name the six aetiological classifications of pneumonia.
-Community acquired pneumonia
-Hospital acquired pneumonia
-Pneumonia in the immunocompromised
-Atypical pneumonia
-Aspiration pneumonia
-Recurrent pneumonia
How do individuals get Hospital Acquired Pneumonia?
In hospital for another reason and pick up pneumonia as a complication
What is one of the dangers about HAP?
In hospitals, more pathogenic organisms have a higher antibiotic resistance.
Who gets affected by aspiration pneumonia?
Those who have difficulty swallowing as infection is related to food/gastric content
What happens in bronchopneumonia?
Causes inflammation in the alveoli
Accumulation of pus- alveoli filled w pus
Discuss what you would see in a CXR or CT of a chest w bronchopneumonia.
Bilateral, base of lungs, white fluffy shadows
What does lobar pneumonia involve?
Whole lobe of the lung becomes consolidated.
How does the body try to eradicate lobar pneumonia but in doing so, makes it worse?
Host has hypersensitivity response so produces lots of fluid and exudate to wash out the organisms but instead, spreads them over the region.
