Respiratory Diseases Flashcards
What are the key symptoms of respiratory disease
- Dyspnoea
- Cough
- Haemoptysis
- Chest pain
What is the stridor
Respiratory disease symptom = harsh/narrow inspiratory noise suggestive of upper airway obstruction
What does the SOCRATES acronym stand for when trying to assess a patient’s condition
Site Onset Character Radiation Associations Time course Exacerbating/relieving factors Severity
What are some common respiratory diseases
- Asthma
- COPD
- Pneumonia
- TB
- Lung cancer
- Cystic fibrosis
What is asthma and what goes wrong when it affects a patient
- Common chronic inflammatory condition of the airways
- Airways are hyperesponsive and cause reversible airflow obstruction
- Bronchospasm
- Mucosal Oedema
- Mucus Hypersecretion
What are the clinical features of Asthma
- Wheeze
- Dyspnoea
- Chest tightness
- Cough
- May become distressed, anxious and tachycardic
- Reduced chest expansion and use of accessory respiratory muscles
- Symptoms intermittent
- Clinical features may be absent in well-controlled asthmatic patients
What investigations can be done for Asthma
- PEFR
- Spirometry
- Blood test
- CXR
What do you look for in a PEFR asthma investigation
Shows diurnal variation - at least 15% with lowest values in the early morning.
- Improvement after bronchodilator -> asthma
- No improvement and smoker -> COPD
What do you look for in a spirometry test for asthmatics
FEV1 : FVC ratio is reduced (normal is >0.7)
What do you look for in the blood test of an asthmatic patient
Eosinophilia
Raised total IgE
Why do we do a CXR test for asthmatic patients
To rule out other causes e.g. pneumothorax
What ways can asthma be managed - excluding drugs
- Patient education
- Smoking cessation advice
- Avoid exposure to triggers: irritants and allergens
- Step-wise approach to treatment based on the severity recommended
What drugs are used in order to manage asthma
- Short and long acting inhaled beta-agonists,
- Inhaled corticosteroids
- Leukotriene receptor antagonists
- Oral corticosteroids
- Anti-IgE monoclonal antibody e.g. omalizumab
What is the dental relevance of Asthma
- Identify high risk patients and take precautions
- Patients to attend with their usual medicaiton
- GA and IV sedation is best avoided
- Elective care deferred in severe asthmatics until condition improves
- Triggers = NSAIDs, Penicillin, Stress and anxiety
- Gastro-oesophageal reflux is common in asthmatics - tooth erosion
- Medication - thrush, dry mouth, adrenal suppression with systemic corticosteroids
What is Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD)
- Common, progressive, poorly reversible airflow limitation associated with persistent inflammatory response of the lungs
- Chronic bronchitis and/or emphysema = COPD
Name some of the risk factors for COPD
- Smoking = major risk factor, pack years dependent
- Air pollutants - indoor, outdoor
- Occupational dusts and chemicals
- Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency - early onset COPD
What is chronic bronchitis and what are the primary symptoms
- Airway obstruction from chronic mucosal inflammation, mucus gland hypertrophy, mucus hyper secretion and bronchospasm
- Persistent cough and sputum production on most days for three months of the year in 2 successive years
What is Emphysema
- Dilatation of air spaces distal to the terminal bronchioles with destructions of alveoli, reducing the alveolar surface area available for gaseous exchange
- Reduced elastic recoil, collapse and reduced total lung capacity
Name some of the clinical features of COPD
- Progressive shortness of breath
- Persistnet cough
- Fatigue
- Chronic sputum production
- Weight loss
- Barrel chest
- Tachycardia
- Reduced exercise tolerance and chest expansion
- Flapping tremor
How is COPD diagnosed
FEV1 : FVC ratio < 0.7
- FEV1 predicts severity