I Can’t Stop Coughing: A Case Study on the Respiratory System

Mike is sitting in his athletic training suite feeling sorry for himself. He moved from Southern California to play soccer at Northern Minnesota University (NMU) as a highly recruited player. All was well until he got sick with a miserable cold. He soon recovered, but now he finds himself with a lingering dry cough and difficulty catching his breath any time he exerts himself, which is every day! He also notices it has gotten worse as the weather has become colder. To make things worse, Mike feels, and looks, like he’s out of shape, so his coach has been criticizing him for dogging it.

A few days later, Mike relays his story to JP, the head athletic trainer at NMU. “I’m thinking my cold is coming back, or something else is wrong with me. When I’m just hanging out, like now, I feel fine. But as soon as I start to run I get winded and can’t stop coughing.” JP listens to Mike’s breathing sounds with his stethoscope, but hears nothing abnormal. So he tells Mike to come back as soon as the symptoms return during soccer practice. Twenty minutes later, Mike is back in the athletic training suite, audibly wheezing, coughing, and short of breath. The team physician, Dr. McInnis, happens to be there and performs a complete physical exam. He also does pulmonary function tests with Mike using spirometry, including a forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1). He instructs Mike to take a maximal inhalation and then exhale as forcefully and maximally as possible into the spirometer.

Based on his findings, Dr. McInnis tells Mike he thinks he is experiencing cold-induced bronchoconstriction (also called cold-induced asthma), which is made worse by exertion. The doctor explains to Mike that his recent upper respiratory infection probably inflamed his airways, making them hypersensitive and reactive to irritants, such as cold and physical exertion. When Mike exercises in the cold, autumn afternoons of Minnesota, his sensitive airways temporarily bronchoconstrict, causing the symptoms he is experiencing. Asthma is almost always a reversible condition. Dr. McInnis prescribes two puffs of an albuterol inhaler, to be used 10 minutes before a bout of exercise in the cold.

Short Answer Questions:

1) Describe the relationship between intrapulmonary pressure, atmospheric pressure, and air flow during normal inspiration and expiration, referring to Boyle’s law.

2) Resistance varies in Mike’s conducting airways. Using your understanding of respiratory anatomy, explain where in his airway the resistance is highest and why.

3) Several physical factors that influence the efficiency of pulmonary ventilation are compliance, alveolar surface tension, and airway resistance. Briefly describe each factor and identify the one that is affecting Mike’s efficiency of breathing.

4) What must happen to Mike’s intrapulmonary pressure in order for him to maintain normal air flow during inhalation and exhalation when he is having one of his asthma attacks?

5) How does Mike’s body make the necessary changes in intrapulmonary pressure to maintain normal air flow when he is experiencing cold-induced asthma?

6) When Mike is experiencing an asthmatic attack, his forced vital capacity (FVC) is 65%, and his FEV1 is 65%. Are these values normal? Knowing how one performs FVC tests, explain these test results in Mike’s case. (Assume that Mike and the doctor have performed an accurate test.)

7) Albuterol is a selective beta-2 adrenergic agonist, which means it specifically activates beta-2 adrenergic receptors on smooth muscle in the airways. How does this improve Mike’s asthma?

If the radius of a blood vessel decreases by 30% (1/3), how does it effect blood flow?

1. Define homeostasis. Who was the first person to describe the phenomenon? Who was the first person to coin the term Homeostasis. Explain the processes involved in returning your body temperature to its 37°C set point during a run when your body temperature gets above 37°C.

2. As you are sitting at your desk reviewing ANS 100 lectures during Spring 2020, you look out your window and notice a new species of animal. You remember reading about this new species Covidicus whoknowswhatitis on social media and that people don’t know much about it yet. So, like a good Animal Science student you go outside to take a closer look. You see that there are lots of individuals of this species and they range in size from about 1g to 1000g. They are transparent and so you can see their internal organs (and you have superpowers, so you know the weight of everything you look at!). You notice that one individual is 10g and has a 1g liver, you then notice another individual that is 30g and has a 3 g liver. In this species, does liver size scale allometrically or isometrically? Both animals turn around and now you see their kidneys. In the 10g species the kidney is 0.5g (yes, they have big kidneys) and in the 30g species the kidney is 1g. In this species, does the kidney scale allometrically or isometrically? Explain the difference between allometric and isometric scaling. Why do many physiological processes or anatomical structures scale allometrically?

3. You are taking a nice walk through the Arboretum to get some fresh air and you notice a salmon in Putah Creek. You decide that you must return this salmon to the ocean. When you reach into Putah Creek you notice how warm the water is (15°C). When you release the salmon in the ocean at UC Davis’s Bodega Marine Lab the seawater feels quite cold (5°C). What is the body the temperature of the salmon in Putah Creek and what is the body temperature of the salmon in the ocean? You were able to take a blood sample and measure plasma chloride levels of the salmon when it was in Putah Creek and then again after you returned it to the ocean. Was the plasma chloride ion concentration higher in the salmon after you returned it to the ocean because seawater has a higher chloride concentration? Lastly, would you classify the salmon as a conformer or a regulator or does it depend? Briefly describe your answer.

4. You are an undergraduate honors student in my lab and you just came home from doing field work in the Antarctic (water temperature -1.9°C) with frozen fish muscle tissue. You are interested in learning more about adaptation to temperature so you also go to Putah Creek (water temperature = 15°C) and collect muscle tissues from another salmon you find. You put both bags of fish tissue in the freezer but forget to label them. What aspect of cellular physiology could you examine to determine which species came from water at -1.9°C and which species came from water at 15°C? What specifically would you look for to assign the fish tissues to one group or the other?

5. So, you go back to the Bodega Marine Lab after the shelter in place order has been lifted (i.e. many weeks from now) and go fishing, because, who doesn’t like to fish! The water is still very cold (5°C), so you decide swimming is a bad idea. You catch the same salmon you released from Putah Creek back in Question 3. You eat it for dinner but also take a sample of its muscle. You run it through the same set of tests you did in Question 4. What do you find and how does it compare to the salmon you caught in Putah Creek in Question 4?

6. We see beautiful Wilson warblers at Putah Creek during our fish collection. Because we have the animal care permits, we need, we collect these birds and hold them at the same two temperatures as the salmon (i.e. 5°C and 15°C). Would we expect to see the same changes as we saw in fish? Why or Why not?

7. Many different molecules need to pass in and out of a cell across the cell membrane and from the outside of the body to the inside. Some of these molecules are hydrophobic and some are hydrophilic. Define these two terms and explain why they differ in their ability to pass through cell membranes. What part of a cell membrane makes it so tricky for some molecules to get through? How do these two types of molecules pass through cell membranes?

What does the urinary system do? Simple question, complex answer. As you are researching and answering this question, please be sure to note: The sequence of events that leads to excretion. What is the hormone ANH and what does it do? What are the two mechanisms by which kidneys help maintain blood pH? What are the normal components of urine? What substances commonly indicate a disorder in renal function? Finally, how does diabetes lead to renal failure?  

Where else in the inner ear are there similar hair cells as stereocilia that act as sensory receptors?

Match these muscle tissues with the characteristics below for 11-15. (Some will have more than one answer.)

1. Skeletal muscle
2. Cardiac muscle
3. Smooth muscle

11. Under voluntary control

12. Under involuntary control

13. Striated

14. Multinucleated

15. Branched with 1-2 nuclei in center of cell

Describe the process in vitro growth (IVG) of oocyte and the application in Reproductive Biotechnology.

Design a one-week corrective exercise program for a friend or client. Your program must include the following:

1. Have your client fill out the Lower Extremity Functional Index and the Upper Extremity Functional Index. Summarize what the results tell you about your client (you do not need to submit the filled out forms).
2. Conduct an Upper Body Multi-Joint Movement Assessment and a Lower Body Multi-Joint Movement Assessment on your client. Summarize your findings and how these findings influenced your program design.
3. A detailed one-week corrective exercise program including specific exercises/drills/stretches, sets, and repetitions.
4. A comprehensive analysis of your program outlining how your prescriptions meet the needs of the client..

1.Describe the pathway that air takes from the external environment to the alveoli during inspiration.

2. Describe the concept of a mucociliary escalator. where is the system found, and what adverse effects would occur if it was not present?

3. how is the opening of the trachea protected during swallowing

4. Describe the difference between external inspiration and internal inspiration

5.what is surface tension? why is surface tension potentially dangerous at the surface of alveoli? what reduces alveolar surface tension?

6. Describe the 2 phases of ventilation: inspiration and expiration. make sure to include activity of muscles involved, the pressure and volume of the lungs during each phase , and sources of neural control for these processes.

7. while preparing for a big presentation this morning, carol became increasingly nervous and began having a panic attack, causing her hyperventilate. what chemical imbalances in the blood might result from hyperventilation? what can be done to regain chemical homeostasis in the blood?

Part A:

Outline and paraphrase the negative feedback cycles involved in the development and maturation of sperm in the human male. Include the role of follicle stimulating hormone(FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), androgen binding protein (ABP)and inhibin.

Part B:

Outline and paraphrase the negative feedback cycles involved in the development and ovulation of an egg in the female. Include the role of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), estrogen and progesterone.

Provide one way in which glutamine/glutamate could be regulated hormonally, in order to meet the needs of the organism. Start with the hormone that would be used to send the message to the liver cell that the blood glucose level is low, and run through the steps of the amplification cascade in the liver (a sketch with explanation would be useful), and conclude with one important target enzyme and indicate how it would be affected (activated? Inhibited? How?). Briefly explain the biochemical strategy of this regulation.