Respiratory Flashcards
Restrictive disease
- FEV1
- FVC
- FEV1/FVC radio
- Examples
- < 80% predicted
- < 80% predicted
- > 70% normal
- Scoliosis, fibrosis, post-trauma, obesity, neuromuscular, asbestosis
Obstructive disease
- FEV1
- FVC
- FEV1/FVC radio
- Examples
- < 80% predicted
- Normal or low
- < 70% predicted
- COPD, asthma, bronchiectasis - partially reversible
Asthma - general
- 3 causes of airway narrowing
- Examination signs
- Precipitants - DIPLOMATS
- Longer term tests
- Important social aspects of history - ‘OPSA’
- Important HPC
- Management (steps 1-4)
- How often can treatment step down be considered
- How should ICS be reduced when stepping down
- Mucus production, bronchoconstriction, mucosal inflammation
- Tachycardia, tachypnoea, resonant percussion, hyperinflated chest with decreased wall movement, polyphonic expiratory wheeze
- Drugs (NSAIDs, beta blockers), infection, pollutants, laughter, oesophageal reflux, mites, allergens, temperature (cold), some exercise
- Skin prick, lung function
- Occupation, pets, smoking, allergens
- Attacks per week, exacerbations, previous ITU
- Step 1 (SABA e.g. salbutamol), step 2 if 3+ symptoms a week, or waking at night (add ICS e.g. beclomethasone), step 3 (add LTRA e.g. montelukast), step 4 (add LABA e.g. salmeterol, review LTRA)
- Every 3 months
- By no more than 50%
Asthma - classification
- Mild
- Moderate
- Severe
- Life threatening - ‘SHOCC 92’
- PEFR >75%
- PEFR 50-75%
- PEFR <50% RR >25, HR >110, CO2 low/normal, hypoxic, can’t complete sentences
- Silent chest, hypotension, peak flow one third, cyanosed, CO2 increased and acidotic, confused
Asthma - exacerbation (general)
- History
- Bedside tests
- When to do an ABG
- Other blood tests
- Initial management
- Full management - ‘O SHIT ME’
- Severity - SOCRATES, prevision admissions, inhaler compliance, rescue packs, home nebulisers
- Observations (RR, HR, SPO2, BP), peak flow, ECG
- SPO2 < 92%
- FBC, U+Es, CRP, infectious screen
- Salbutamol inhaler - can give 3 doses 5mg back to back then doses every 15 minutes
- Oxygen, Salbutamol (back to back, 5-10mg/hr), Hydrocortisone 100mg IV (/ prednisolone 40mg PO 5 days) , Ipratropium (500mcg nebuliser, 4-6 hourly), Theophylline (aminophylline infusion 1mg in 1L saline 0.5mg/hr, only in ITU as need daily levels, U+Es, cardiac monitoring), Magnesium sulphate (2g IV over 20 minutes, one off dose), Escalation to critical care
Indications for ITU in respiratory distress
Requiring ventilator support
Worsening hypoxia / hypercapnia / acidosis
Exhaustion
Drowsiness / confusion
Shortness of breath - causes
- Sudden respiratory
- Acute respiratory
- Chronic respiratory
- Cardiac
- Sudden systemic
- Acute on chronic systemic
- Pulmonary embolism, inhaled foreign body, pneumothorax
- COPD / asthma exacerbation, pneumonia
- Asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis
- Heart failure, MI, angina, valve disease, arrhythmias
- Anaphylaxis, hyperventilation, anxiety
- Metabolic acidosis, thyrotoxicosis, fever, anaemia, obesity, neurological disease
Pneumonia
- CURB 65 score - components and interpretation
- Other factors increasing mortality risk (3)
CAP management
- Mild (CURB 0-1)
- Moderate (CURB 2)
- Severe (CURB 3)
- ABX to add if staph suspected
- ABX to add if MRSA suspected
- HAP management
- Aspiration pneumonia management
- Confusion, urea >7, RR >30, BP (systolic <90 / diastolic <60), age >65. 0-1 (PO abx/home treatment), 2 (hospital therapy), 3 (severe, consider ITU)
- Comorbidities, bilateral/multilobar, PaO2 <8 kPa
- PO amoxicillin / clarithromycin / doxycycline 5d
- PO amoxicillin and clarithromycin / doxycycline 7d
- IV clarithromycin and co-amoxiclav / cephalosporin e.g. cefuroxime 7d
- Flucloxacillin +/ rifampicin 10d
- Vancomycin / teicopleinin
- IV aminoglycoside and antipseudomonal penicillin / 3rd generation cephalosporin
- IV cephalosporin and metronidazole
CXR findings - differentials
- ‘White out’
- Pleural plaques
- Bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy (6)
- Lung nodules in context of rheumatoid arthritis and pneumoconiosis
- Double right heart
- Pleural mass/thickening/effusion with lobulated margin
- Walled cavity, often with fluid level
- Cystic shadows, thickened bronchial walls (tram line and ring shadows)
- Lobulated mass + calcification flecks (CT)
- Bilateral pulmonary infiltrates
- Normal, or oligaemia of affected segment, wedge shaped opacities or cavitation
- Area devoid of lung markings peripheral to edge of area of collapsed lung, potential tracheal deviation / mediastinal shift
- Costophrenic angle blunting if small, water-dense shadow with concave upper border if larger, ‘white out’
- Enlarged right atrium and ventricle, prominent pulmonary arteries
- Upper zone mottling/consolidation, hilar lymphadenopathy
- Air space shadowing (4)
- Bilateral interstitial shadowing (typically small, irregular, peripheral opacities - ‘ground-glass’, ‘honeycombing’
- Trachea away (effusion, diaphragm problem), trachea central (consolidation, pulmonary oedema), trachea towards (total lung collapse, pneumonectomy)
- Asbestosis
- Sarcoidosis, TB, mycoplasma, lymphoma, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, silicosis
- Caplan syndrome
- Advanced mitral stenosis causing left atrial enlargement
- Mesothelioma
- Empyma
- Bronchiectasis
- Hamartoma
- ARDS
- Pulmonary embolism
- Pneumothorax
- Pleural effusion
- Cor pulmonale
- Acute EAA
- Infection, lymphoma, alveolar cell carcinoma, haemorrhage
- Pulmonary fibrosis
Atelectesis - definition
Common post operative complication in which bronchial secretions obstruct airway, leading to basal alveolar collapse and respiratory difficulty
COPD
- Causes (2)
- Normal management (steps 1-4)
- Exacerbation management
- Long-term oxygen therapy - when to assess
- Long-term oxygen therapy - indications
- Smoking, a1 antitrypsin deficiency
- Step 1 (SABA/SAMA e.g. ipratropium), Step 2, if uncontrolled but FEV1 >50% (LABA or LAMA e.g. glycopyrrolium/tiotropium), Step 3, if uncontrolled and FEV1 <50% (LAMA or combined LABA/ICS e.g. symbicort (budesonide/formoterol) or seretide (fluticasone/salmeterol/)), Step 4 (triple therapy of LABA, ICS + LAMA)
- O SHIT (but controlled oxygen e.g. 24-28% through venturi, ABG after 15 minutes, and 1-2 weeks of steroids), maybe antibiotics, chest physiotherapy, BiPAP if can’t keep SPO2 at 88-92%
- FEV1 <30% predicted, or considered if FEV1 <50%, cyanosis, polycythaemia, raised JVP, peripheral oedema, PaO2 <92% on room air
- pO2 <7.3 kPa twice, 3 weeks apart, when well, or pO2 7.3-8 kPa with: secondary polycythaemia, nocturnal hypoxaemia, peripheral oedema, or pulmonary hypertension
Alpha 1 antitrypsin
- Location
- Function
- Deficiency presentation
- Deficiency management (lifestyle, supportive, surgical)
- Liver
- Protease inhibitor enzyme; protect cells from enzymes e.g. neutrophil elastase
- Lower lobe COPD (smoking causes upper lobe emphysema) and liver derangement at young age
- No smoking. Supportive - bronchodilators, physiotherapy, IV A1AT protein concentrates. Surgery -volume reduction surgery, lung transplantation
Pulmonary fibrosis
- Upper zone causes (CHARTS)
- Lower zone causes
- Clinical features
- CXR findings
- Bloods
- Idiopathic bloods
- Idiopathic diagnostic test
- Idiopathic management
- Coal workers pneumoconiosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, ankylosing spondylitis, radiation, TB, silicosis (miliary, egg shell hilar calcification) / (mid zone) sarcoidosis
- Idiopathic, connective tissue disease, drugs (amiodarone, methotrexate), asbestosis
- Progressively SOB, cyanosis, inspiratory fine crepitations, cough, clubbing, weight loss, arthralgia
- Bilateral interstitial shadowing (typically small, irregular, peripheral opacities - ‘ground-glass’)
- FBC, U+Es, LFTs, CRP, ANCA (vasculitis), ACE levels (sarcoidosis)
- ANA, rheumatoid factor
- CT
- Supportive, steroids (if diagnosis is in doubt), maybe azathioprine
Pulmonary sarcoidosis
- Classic patient
- Associated alleles
- Acute presentation (Lofgren syndrome)
- Blood findings
- CXR findings
- Non-pulmonary signs
- ECG findings
- Diagnostic test
- Ultrasound finding
- Bone x-ray finding
- Bronchiolar lavage finding
- Management
- Black 20-40yo progressive SOB, chest pain, dry cough
- HLA-DRB1 /DQB1
- Erythema nodosum on shins, fever, polyarthralgia, CXR changes
- ACE, ESR, LFT, Ca2+, immunoglobulins up
- Bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy +/- pulmonary infiltrates / fibrosis
- Lymphadenopathy, hepatosplenomegaly, nodules, eye problems, neurological problems, high blood/urine Ca2+
- Arrhythmias / bundle branch block
- Tissue biopsy
- Nephrocalcinosis
- Punched out lesion in terminal phalange
- Lymphocyte in active disease, neutrophil in fibrosis
- Bed rest, NSAIDs, prednisolone if significant lung disease, uveitis, high Ca2+, neurological/cardiac involvement
Bronchiectasis
- Definition
- Causes
- Main organisms
- Symptoms
- Signs
- Complications
- CXR findings
- If culture pseudomonas, which therapy
- When to consider long-term ABX
- General management
- Chronic inflammation and infection of bronchial walls leading to permanent airway dilation
- Cystic fibrosis, primary ciliary dyskinesia, Kartagener’s syndrome, post-infection e.g. measles, TB
- Haemophilus influenzae, pseudomonas, strep pneumonia, klebsiella
- Persistent cough, copious purulent sputum, intermittent haemoptysis
- Finger clubbing, coarse inspiratory creps, wheeze
- Pneumonia, pleural effusion, pneumothorax, cerebral abscess, amyloidosis
- Cystic shadows, thickened bronchial walls (tram line and ring shadows)
- Oral ciprofloxacin / other IV
- 3+ exacerbations / year
- Airway clearance techniques, antibiotics, bronchodilators, prednisolone, surgery if localised / severe haemoptysis
Cough - causes
- Acute
- Mucus-producing
- Bloodstained
- Chronic non-productive
- Inhaled foreign object, goitre / tumour pressing on larynx, post nasal drip, URTI
- Pneumonia, bronchiectasis, COPD exacerbation
- TB, cancer, PE, HF (pink frothy)
- Asthma, pulmonary fibrosis, GORD, ACE-i, ANCA positive
Respiratory system - questions
SOB Cough Wheeze Chest pain Haemoptysis Weight loss / fever / night sweats
Chronic cough - investigations
- Bloods
- Bedside
- Non-bedside
- FBC, CRP / ESR, U+Es, TFTs, ANCA
- PEFR, sputum sample and culture
- Spirometry, CXR, echocardiogram
Cyanosis
- Central - causes
- Central - key test
- Peripheral - causes
- Peripheral - need to exclude
- Chronic lung disease, congenital heart disease, PE, abnormal haemoglobin
- ABG
- Central causes, + Reynaud’s, slow circulation, vascular occlusion
- Vascular occlusion
Bilateral lung conditions - common locations
- Upper lobe predominant
- Lower lobe predominant
- Cystic fibrosis, ankylosing spondylitis, sarcoidosis, TB
2. Bronchiectasis, asbestosis, interstitial pneumonia
Haemoptysis
- Respiratory causes
- Systemic causes
- HPC questions
- PMH questions
- Associated symptoms
- Blood tests
- Bedside tests
- Imaging
- Infection (pneumonia, TB), trauma, PE, malignancy
- Granulomatus polyangiitis, goodpasture’s disease
- How much, what colour, mixed with sputum, B symptoms
- Kidney disease, clotting disorders, occupation, smoking
- Chest pain, SOB, cough, nose bleed
- FBC, U+Es, CRP, ANCA (GPA), Clotting screen, Anti-GBM antibodies (goodpasture’s)
- ECG, urine dip/culture, urinary antigens (atypical pneumonia), sputum sample
- CXR, echocardiogram, fibreoptic bronchoscopy, CT, CTPA (if suspected PE)