To Breathe
This is the main respiratory muscle which contracts during inspiration and relaxes during expiration.
What is the diaphragm?
50 extra points if you can tell me the nerve roots that innervate the diaphragm.
This response, triggered by long-term exposure to irritants like smoke, causes the characteristic damage to the lungs in COPD.
What is Chronic Inflammation?
98% of oxygen and 10% of carbon dioxide are transported through the blood bound to this protein.
What is Hemoglobin?
50 extra points if you can tell me the shape of the oxygen-hemoglobin dissociate curve.
This term refers to the mechanical process by which air is moved into and out of the lungs.
What is Ventilation?
50 extra points if you can tell me what perfusion is.
This term describes the rounded, expanded appearance of the chest seen in advanced COPD, caused by chronic lung hyperinflation.
What is Barrel Chest?
This term refers to the maximum amount of air that the lungs can hold.
What is Total Lung Capacity (TLC)?
50 extra points if you can fill in this equation
TLC = ___ + ___ + ___ + ___
This enzyme, released by neutrophils in response to chronic inflammation, breaks down elastin in the lung tissue, contributing to the development of emphysema.
What is Elastase?
This is the process by which gas exchange occurs across the respiratory membrane. For example, oxygen moves from the alveoli with high O₂ concentration to the pulmonary capillaries with low O₂ concentration.
What is Simple Diffusion?
Gas exchange is most efficient when ventilation matches perfusion and V̇/Q̇ = this.
What is 1?
50 extra points if you can tell me what V̇/Q̇ is normally.
This body position, often assumed by patients in distress, helps ease breathing by optimizing accessory muscle use.
What is Tripod Position?
This term refers to the volume of air that is inhaled and exhaled in a normal breath at rest.
What is Tidal Volume (TV)?
This occurs when narrowed or obstructed airways prevent complete exhalation, causing an abnormal buildup of air in the lungs.
What is Air Trapping? or What is Hyperinflation?
This term refers to the physiologic process of exchanging CO2 for O2 within the lungs.
What is Respiration?
V̇/Q̇ mismatch is characterized by an increase in this gradient because impaired gas exchange decreases arterial partial pressure of oxygen.
What is the Alveolar-arterial Gradient (A-a gradient)?
50 extra points if you can tell me whether or not A-a gradient is increased at high altitudes.
This high-pitched lung sound, often heard during expiration in COPD, results from airflow through narrowed or obstructed airways.
What is Expiratory Wheezing?
50 extra points if you can tell me another abnormal breath sound heard in COPD.
This pressure decreases during inspiration and increases during expiration but it is normally always negative to prevent the lungs from collapsing.
What is Intrapleural Pressure?
This genetic deficiency leads to an imbalance in protease-antiprotease activity, contributing to the development of emphysema, especially in young, non-smokers.
What is Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency?
The oxygenation of hemoglobin in the lungs promotes the release of CO2 from red blood cells so that it can be exhaled, a process known as this effect.
What is the Haldane Effect?
50 extra points if you can tell me the name of the opposite effect which increases O2 release in the peripheral tissues.
This physiological reflex redirects blood flow away from poorly ventilated alveoli to better-ventilated ones.
What is Hypoxic Vasoconstriction?
Patients with this subtype of COPD are often call "pink puffers" because they are not cyanotic and have pursed lips.
What is Emphysema?
50 extra points if you can tell me why they also have weight loss.
This law, which explains how breathing occurs, states that for a given amount of gas at a constant temperature, the pressure and volume are inversely proportional.
What is Boyle's Law?
50 extra points if you can tell me the equation.
This pathologic process, often seen in chronic bronchitis, leads to excessive mucus production and narrowing of the airways.
What is Goblet Cell Hyperplasia?
According to this law, the rate of gas diffusion across a membrane is directly proportional to surface area and pressure gradient, and inversely proportional to membrane thickness.
What is Fick's Law of Diffusion?
Shunts and dead space represent the extremes of this imbalance, which decreases the efficiency of gas exchange.
What is V̇/Q̇ Mismatch?
50 extra points if you can tell me which increases and which decreases V̇/Q̇ ratio.
Patients with this subtype of COPD are often called "blue bloaters" due to cyanosis and fluid retention.
What is Chronic Bronchitis?