Question

Describe the anatomy and physiology of any respiratory disease you have encountered or heard about. What happened in the organs? How did these affect the dynamics of airflow and gas exchange (ventilation and internal respiration)?

Answer 1

Among the common respiratory disease includes, Emphysema.

Emphysema is an obstructive respiratory disease, meaning that the condition makes it difficult to fully exhale (as opposed to restrictive respiratory diseases, which make it difficult to fully inhale). In addition to difficulty breathing, emphysema is associated with symptoms like, coughing, wheezing, tightness of chest, etc. The cause of emphysema is usually long-term exposure to irritants that damage your lungs and the airways, the most common cause of emphysema is cigratte smoking.

In normal individual, the alveoli is a tiny air sacs in the lungs, whose main function to efficiently transport oxygen to the blood vessels or tissue and facilitate the removal of carbon di oxide. In a condition like emphsema, the walls of alveoli are damaged, this will create large air spaces instead of many small ones. This reduces the surface area of the lungs and, in turn, the amount of oxygen that reaches your bloodstream.When you exhale, the damaged alveoli don't work properly and old air becomes trapped, leaving no room for fresh, oxygen-rich air to enter. In due course of time carbon di oxide starts to accumulate in the body which can lead to condition like acidosis, in addition to this , emphysema damages the elasticity of the airways that lead to the air sacs, causing the air sacs to collapse and trap oxygen within the lungs. All these leads to breathing difficult and other symptoms associated with emphysema.