The Respiratory System Flashcards
What is Ventilation?
The movement of air in and out of the body
What is Gas Exchange?
The exchange of CO2 and O2 between the air and the blood and between blood and other body cells
What is Cellular Respiration?
The chemical breakdown of glucose to form ATP; uses O2, CO2 is a waste product
Why do we need a ventilation system?
- To maintain a high concentration of gradients of gases in the lung
- maintains a concentration gradient of oxygen and CO2 between the air in the alveoli and blood flowing in adjacent capillaries
What is respiration?
The exchange of CO2 and O2 in the body
What is breathing?
The process of moving air in and out of the lungs
What is external respiration?
The exchange of gases between the air and the blood
What is internal respiration?
The exchange of gases between the blood and the tissues
What is the respiratory track and in what order?
The passageway used to move air from the external environment to the lungs
nose, pharynx, trachea, bronchi, bronchiole, alveoli
What is the nasal passage?
- where air enters
- warms, moistens, cleans incoming air
What cells trap foreign materials from entering the cells?
Ciliated and mucus-secreting cells
What are turbinate bones?
- in nasal passage
- increase SA of nasal passages
- good blood supply
- helps warm air
What is the pharynx?
- throat
- passageway for air and food
What is the epiglottis?
- prevents food from going into the trachea
What is the glottis?
opening to the trachea
What is the larynx made of?
cartilage
What does the larynx contain?
vocal cords
Where is the larynx located?
at glottis (opening of trachea)
How are vocal cords normally? When you speak?
relaxed
tightened
What are bronchi?
The two main branches of the trachea
What are the bronchi supported by?
Cartilage
What do the bronchi branch to?
bronchioles
What are the bronchi and bronchioles lined with?
ciliated and mucus- producing cells
What do the lungs contain?
the structures where gas exchange between air and blood occurs
How many lobes in each lung?
3 on right
2 on left (to make room for the heart)
Describe the pleural membrane
- double layer membrane that connects the lungs to the thoracic cavity
- outer layer is attached to cavity wall
- inner layer is attached to lungs
- two layers are connected by fluid
What is the alveoli?
How many types?
- sacs where gas exchange actually occurs
- clustered like grapes
- alveolar wall is one cell thick
What are the alveolus surrounded by?
- capillaries (small blood vessels)
What do the Type 1 Pneumocytes do?
- have thin alvelar cells that adapt to carry out gas exchange
- make up 90-95% of all pneumocytes
What do the Type 2 Pneumocytes do?
- secrete a solution containing surfactant that creates a moist surface inside the alveoli to prevent the sides of the alveolus from adhering to each other by reducing surface tension
What are surfactants?
compounds that lower the surface tension between two liquids or between a liquid and a solid
What is Boyle’s Law?
- Pressure of a gas varies inversely with volume
- As pressure increases, volume decreases
What do they mean by the thoracic cavity is airtight?
The only exit and entrance is through trachea
What is the diaphragm?
Dome- shaped muscle that separates thoracic from abdominal cavity
What are intercostals?
Muscles between ribs (allows ribs to rise and fall)
What is tidal volume?
The volume of air inhaled and exhaled under normal circumstances
What is inspiratory reserve volume?
the additional volume one can inhale
What is expiratory reserve volume?
the additional volume one can exhale
What is vital capacity?
the total lung capacity (tidal volume+ inspiratory volume + expiratory reserve)
What is residual volume?
The amount of air remaining, even after full exhalation
What is a spirograph?
represents the amount of air that goes into and out of lungs in each breath
where does gas exchange happen
between alveoli and capillaries
how do gases move
via diffusion
where does Co2 go
external respiration
it’s concentration is high in the blood so it diffuses into the alveoli
where does the 02 go
external respiration
its concentration is high in the alveoli so it diffused into the blood
explain the oxygen transport in blood
99% is carried by red blood cells (hemoglobin)
rest is dissolved in plasma
explain the CO2 transport in blood
70% is dissolved and carried as bicarbonate
CO2 + H2O (H2C03) dissociates into H+ + HCO3-
23% is carried by hemoglobin
7% is carried in the plasma
Why are H+ produced?
Otherwise the pH blood would be too low (H+ are acidic)
How does internal respiration occur?
by diffusion
Explain internal respiration
CO2 concentration is high in tissue, so it flows to blood
O2 concentration is high in blood, so it flows to tissue
What is the strongest stimulus for breathing?
CO2
…. CO2 in blood …. the pH
Increase, decreases
What are chemoreceptors?
they stimulate the brain when they detect O2 and CO2.
What is also stimulated when we inhale?
Diaphragm and Intercostals
What is lung cancer?
the rapid division of cells in the lung
85 % mortality
What are some symptoms of lung cancer?
difficulty breathing persistent coughing coughing up blood fatigue appetite and weight loss
What are some causes of lung cancer?
smoking- 87% second-hand smoke- 3% air pollution- 5% radon gas asbestos and silica (causes cell tissue to deform)
What is Emphysema?
- instead of many thin-walled alveoli, individuals have fewer thicker- walled alveoli
- lungs are less elastic, making ventilation more difficult
What is the result of Emphysema?
less SA for gas exchange, so less effective gas exchange
What are some causes of Emphysema?
- excess phagocytes which produce a protein- digesting enzyme called elastase
- smokers have an excess of phagocytes
- can also be genetic
What is the treatment for Emphysema?
Oxygen supplementation
