Respiration Flashcards
what two processes are part of lung ventilation?
inspiration and expiration
what happens to atmos and alveo pressures during inspiration and expiration?
inspiration- atmos press is greater than alveolar. air moves into the lungs
expiration- alveo press greater than atmosp, air moves out of lungs
what inflation factors have to be overcome?
elastic recoil
surface tension in alveoli
airway resistance
what happens to elastic forces in the chest and lungs when at rest?
they balance
what does the elastic nature of the lungs cause?
collapse inwards
what does the elastic forces of the chest cause?
causes them to expand
what is compliance?
it is the measure of elasticity, distencibility, the ease with which the lungs and thorax expand during pressure changes.
what disease causes low compliance? what does this cause?
pulmanory fibrosis. means more work is required to inspire.
what disease causes high compliance? what does this cause?
emphysema, causes it to be more difficult to expire.
what is overall compliance made up of?
lung compliance and thoratic compliance
what happens to the lungs and chest at equilibrium position
collapsing force of the lungs matches the expanding force of the chest wall. Palv = P atm giving FRC
what happens to the chest and lung when volume is less than FRC? (exp)
there’s a smaller volume in the lung, forces favouring elastic collapse are low, the forces on the chest favour expansion, overall the system wants to expand
what happens to the chest and lung when the volume is greater than FRC? (insp)
elastic forces favouring collapse are higher, forces on the chest for expansion are small. overall system collapses.
how does fibrosis effect lung compliance?
decrease in compliance, the same change in pressure has a smaller change in volume leading to a decrease in FRC
how does emphysema effect compliance?
increases compliance, the same change in pressure has a larger change in volume. this leads to an increase in FRC.
what are the two components of elastic recoil in the lung? which one is the greater factor?
anatomical components- elastic nature of cells and ECM
surface tension - surface tension at the air-fluid interface
surface tension is the greater factor, being responsible for 50% of the recoil.
what happens if the lungs are inflated with saline? what does this mean?
as pressure increases there’s a fairly linear increase in lung volume, this tails when approaching max lung capacity. there’s a similar relationship when decreasing pressure. this means it’s easy to inflate the lungs with Saline.
what happens when lungs are inflated with air? why is this?
when pressure is increased at first there is very little change in volume, then at a certain point there is a very steep relationship between pressure and volume. this is due to surface tension having to be overcome.
when pressure is reduced the lungs collapse more evenly meaning there’s a difference between inflation and deflation curves.
why does surface tension develop?
because of a difference in forces on water molecules at the air/water interface.
in a gas bubbles what happens between pressure and surface tension?
pressure pushes out (pressure created by surface tension pulling downwards) surface tension pulls it down. these two balance out.
what equation is used for surface tension?
LaPlaces equation
what is pressure like in a small and a large alveoli
small - high pressure
large - low pressure.
why do the alveoli in the lung not collapse with the pressure differences of the different sized alveoli?
this is due to surfactant.
what is surfactant produced by?
type 2 pneumocytes.
what is surfactant composed of?
80-90 % phospholipids
30-40 % of these phospholipids is DPPC.
5-10% is protein
what are proteins SP-A and SP-D important in? what are these soluble in?
innate immunity, they are water soluble
what are proteins SP-B and SP-C important in? and what are they soluble in?
they speed up the formation of the monolayer, they are lipid soluble.
what does surfactant act to reduce? what can it help and prevent?
reduces surface tension
helps inflation and prevents over inflation.
how does surfactant prevent over inflation?
as the alveoli expands the surfactant is diluted resulting in surface tension increasing and making it harder for them to expand further.
what are three factors that have a role in determining air flow?
type of air flow
resistance of the pathway
the pressure gradient generated across the airways
under laminar flow conditions what is the flow of air like?
it’s proportional to the pressure gradients and inversely proportional to resistance
what is laminar flow? where is flow rate maximal?
where does this occur?
steady flow down a uniform direction and speed.
the maximal flow rate is in the centre of the tube but reduces towards the edges.
occurs in the very terminal airways at the alveolar level.
why does turbulent flow develop? what is turbulent flow? what is the difference between this and laminar?
when the flow rate moves beyond a critical value there’s irregular currents and vortices develop.
the rate of gas movement is proportional to the square root of the pressure difference.
a greater pressure gradient is needed to obtain the same flow seen in lamina, meaning more effort is required.
what is the relationship between flow rate and driving pressure for both turbulent and laminar flow.
laminar - linear relationship between flow and driving force
turbulent - as driving pressure increases it’s hard to get an increase in flow rate.
what is the third type of airflow in the lungs? why does this occur?
transitional flow.
this occurs because the lungs are constantly dividing, a high number of bifurifications disrupt flow and creat eddies.
what does transitional flow allow?
a good mixing of gases.
what is determination of flow type governed by?
the reynolds number.
what are the reynolds number under ideal conditions for laminar, turbulent and an unstable flow that switches between both.
laminar - 1500
what happens to velocity as air enters and goes down the airways?
velocity increases as it’s coming into the airways
velocity decreases as going down the airways as there’s a rapid increase in cross sectional area.
what is the impact of flow determined by? what is this?
Poiseuilles law
airway resistence is proportional to gas viscosity and the legnth of the tube but is inversely proportional to the fourth power of the radius
what does a small change in radius do to resistance and flow rate?
a small change in resistance leads to a big change in resistance. this has a huge impact on flow rate
in a normal individual what is the total airway resistance?
2.5 cm H20.S.litres-1