A 50-year old man with a history of chronic lung disease presents to his primary

Question

A 50-year old man with a history of chronic lung disease presents to his primary carephysician with worsening shortness of breath. He was diagnosed about 1 year ago.  He gives a history of smoking cigarettes (one pack a day for 30 years) but has no other medical problems. His general appearance is that of a thin male who appears to be in mild distress.

His cardiac examination is normal, but he is noted to have an expanded anterior-posterior diameter of the chest with expiratory wheezes and breathing through pursed lips. A chest x-ray reveals hyperventilated lung fields bilaterally and no infiltrates. The patient’s physician recommends spirometry to differentiate emphysema, which is an obstructive pulmonary disorder, from restrictive lung disease.

1.       What effect does emphysema have on the functional residual capacity? Explain.

2.       What effect does a restrictive lung disease process have on the functional residual capacity? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

Ans 1... In.emphesema is an obstructive disorder in which expiration is obstructed

Functional residual capacity increases.....because in case of emphysema the lungs are more compliant and the equilibrium between the inward recoil of lung and the outward recoil of chest is disturbed.emphsema is a degnerative disorder and is characterised by loss of lung capacity and replacement of alveoli with large air sacs.thus loss of lung elasticity prevents full expansion of lung .and functional residual volume is nothing but the volume of air remaining in the lung after normal expiration.as the lung is expiring less air so the volume remaining in it will increase hence functional residual volume will increase.

Ans 2....in restrictive lung disorder lung expansion is destroyed.in.this case the expiratory reserve volume increase.functiinal residual capacity is a combination of residual volume and expiratory reserve volume so in.restrive lung disorder again the functional residual capacity increases.moreover due to hyper inflation of lung in restrictive disorder.the functional residual capacity increase.

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