Pathophysiology of respiratory failure Flashcards
What is acute respiratory failure?
Occurs when the respiratory system is no longer able to meet the metabolic demands of the body
What is type 1 respiratory failure?
Hypoxaemic: paO2 <8kPa (or equal to) when breathing room air
Caused by:
- Reduced diffusion (e.g. altitude)
- Reduced diffusion capacity of the lung:
- Reduced surface area
- Damage to the alveolar membrane
What is type 2 respiratory failure?
Hypercapnic respiratory failure: paCO2 >6.7kPa (or equal to)
May also be hypoxaemic
Caused by hypoventilation
What is end tidal gas?
Why does it have a slightly higher pO2 than alveolar gas?
Gas at the mouth at the end of exhalation:
- Combination of dead space gas and alveolar gas
- This is why the pO2 here is slightly more than alveolar gas
What can cause a larger difference in the alveolar-arterial oxygen levels?
Lung pathology:
- Reduced diffusion
- V/Q mismatch
- Shunting
What influences the alveolar partial pressure of oxygen (pAO2)?
Changes in:
- Dead space ventilation
- Diffusing capacity
- Lung perfusion
- Ventilation-perfusion mismatching
How is the pAO2 calculated?
How is the alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient calculated?
What is a normal alveolar-arterial oxygen gradient?
pAO2 = pIO2 - paCO2 (from ABG) / R
pIO2 = partial pressure of inspired oxygen.
R= constant
A-aO2 = pAO2 - paO2 (from ABG)
16 years: around 1.1kPa
80 years: around 3.1 kPa
What is alveolar pressure?
The partial pressure of all the gases in the alveoli combined:
pAO2 + pACO2 + pAH2O + pAN2
What will happen to the alveolar partial pressures of CO2 and O2 during hyperventilation and hypoventilation?
Hypoventilation:
- Increased pACO2
- Decreased pAO2
Hyperventilation:
- Increased pAO2
- Decreased pACO2
What will happen to the partial pressures of the gases in the alveoli if supplementary oxygen is given?
Increased pAO2
Unchanged pAH2O, pACO2
Decreased pAN2
Define ventilation
The amount of gas that is exchanged through the lungs in 1 minute
Define perfusion
The amount of blood that passes through the lungs in 1 minute
What are the 2 extremes of V/Q mismatch?
V/Q ratio = 0
- Ventilation = 0
- Shunting
- pAO2 = paO2 = pvO2
V/Q = infinite
- No perfusion
- pAO2 = pIO2
- Dead space
What can cause hypoventilation?
Respiratory disease:
- COPD
- Asthma
- Cystic fibrosis
- Bronchiolitis
Loss of respiratory drive:
- Head injury
- Drug OD
- Stroke
Altered NM transmission:
- Myasthenia gravis
- Damage to anterior horn of spinal cord (MND)
- Spinal cord injury
- Demyelination of nerve axon (Guillan Barre)
Muscle disease:
- Muscular dystrophy
What are the effects of giving supplementary oxygen to perfused but not ventilated alveoli? (V/Q = 0, shunt)
Little effect as increased pIO2 does not reach poorly ventilated alveoli and blood is already 100% saturated in well ventilated alveoli.