Respiratory System Under Stress Flashcards
Barrometric pressure ____ with distance above earth’s surface
decreases
there is significant ___ associated with high altitude
hypoxia
what is the partial pressure of water vapour at body temperature?
47 mmHg
Who was the woman who worked with Henderson and Scneider on the mountains/tracks
Mabel Fitzgerald
What did Mabel Fitzgerald results show?
alveolar PO2 and PCO2 values
AT altidue, what happens to alveolar PCO2?
It falls, due to increased ventilaion, even in acclimatized people
breathing ____ causes most of the space in alveoli occupied by N2 to be filled with O2 - therefore has significant effects on arterial O2 saturation
pure O2
Acute effects of hypoxia in an unaclimatized person starts at
120000 ft
symptoms of acute hypoxia
drowsiness, lassitude, mental and muscle fatigue, headache, nausea, euphoria - higher = twitching and seizures, above 23000 death
what is the significant problem of acute hypoxia?
decreased metnal capacity - which decreases judgement, memory and performance of discrete motor movements
Where is the death zone?
26000ft - loss of physiological functioning or death due to wrong decisions made as a result of decreased mental capacity
Mountain sickness has 3 phases, what are they?
Acute cerebral edema, acute pulmonary edema, and chronic mountain sickness
Acute cerebral edema
result of local vasodilation of cerebral blood vessels due to hypoxia - increased blood flow to capilaries, increase pressure and causing fluid to leak into cerebral tissue - can cause severe disorientation
Acute pulmonary edema
cause unclear, genetic factors, severe hypoxia causes pulmonary arterioles to constric in a non uniform manner = more and more blood in pulmonary vasculature is pumped thorugh fewer and fewer unconstricted vessels - increase pressure in these parts of lungs, resulting in fluid leakage and local edema = pulmonary edema spreads with loss of funciton
Chronic mountain sickness
can develop in people remaining at high altitude
5 symptoms of chronic mountain sickness
red blood cell mass and hematrocrit increase and increase blood viscovity and decreases blood flow to tissues, pulmonary arterial pressure becomes more elevated as arterioles constrict this happens in the whole lung. right heart becomes enlarged and starts to fail, peripheral arterial pressure falls, congestive heart failure occurs = death is not moved to lower elevation
Acclimatization
adaptation to decreased PO2 and deleterious effects of hypoxia decrease - able to work harder without hypoxia or ascend further
What are the 5 main mechanisms of acclimatization
1 Hyperventilation
2 increase number red blood cells (polycythemia)
3 increased vascularity in peripheral tissues
4. increase efficiency of cells to use O2
5. increased diffusing capacity of the lungs
Hyperventilation
immediate exposure to low PO2 stimulates arterial chemoreceptors = increase ventilation rate - more expired CO2 and increase pH - inhibition of brain stem resp centers which opposes the effects of low PO2 to stimulate respiration cia peripheral chemoreceptors which is the opposite of what you want - this effect fades after a few days due to excretion of HCO3 and consequent decrease in CSF which decreases pH in fluids around chemosensitive neurons in resp center and increases resp stimulation
the sensitivty of the carotid bodies to hypoxia ____ during acclimatization
increases
people born at high altitude have a ____ ventilatory response to hypoxia
diminished
people born at sea level that move to altitude retain ____ for a long time
hypoxic response
Gradual decrease in HCO3 is brought about by what
compensation by the kidneys responding to resp alkylosis - reducing secretion of H+ and increase HCO3- excretion - this gradually reduces plasma and CSF HCO3 and pH towards normal
Polycythemia
increase in Hb concentration and O2 binding capacity
what is the result of polycythemia
although O2 saturation is reduced, levels of O2 in blood may be normal
When exposed to low O2 for several weeks, what rises?
hematocrit, Hb concentration, blood volume = increase in total body Hb of 50%
What is the stimulus for increased red blood cell production?
hypoxemia - triggers erythropoeitin production form kidneys which stimulates erythorcyte production in the bone marrow
What does polycytehmia also do that is not good
increases blood viscocity
Increased vascularity in peripheral tissues
cardiac output can increase after moving to high altitude - this decreases during acclimatization as blood hematocrit increases - result is total O2 transported remains constant - also increased growth of systemic circulatory capillaries in non resp tiissue - angiogenesis - occures especially in animals and people born at high altitudes
Use O2 more efficiently at the cellular level
hypoxia enduces HIFs hypoxia inducing factors - DNA binding transcirption factors that induce several genes that enhance O2 delivery to tissues and enhance energy metabolsim