Pulmonary System

Pulmonary System

Pathophysiology of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases in Children

COPD “Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease” is a disease classified by chronic airway blockage which is not completely reversible. The insufficiency in airflow is usually linked and progressive with abnormal inflammatory reaction of the lungs to noxious gases or particles. COPD is further classified by American Lung Association (2013) in a chronic bronchitis and emphysema as COPD1. After sometime, chronic asthma also starts to be known by the term COPD. Nevertheless, asthma is not characterized as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease until or unless there is a diagnosis of emphysema or chronic bronchitis in combination with the asthma. Other obstructive lung diseases include bronchiectasis, cystic fibrosis and asthma. It is very rare to discover a pure emphysema or chronic bronchitis patient. Normally patients show a combination of both diseases. The obstruction in airways usually linked with emphysema and chronic bronchitis and might be partly reversible. According to National Lung Health Education Program (2013), COPD is defined as a set of breathing concerned symptoms. These symptoms include expectoration, chronic cough, blocked air passages and exertion dyspnea. The mechanisms blocked airflow is considered differently in each and every disease but by partly covering the common diseases.

Asthma

The key symptoms of asthma include coughing, shortness of breath, and wheezing. Normally patients having asthma problem usually find trouble in breathing and they wheeze out while exhaling air. Moreover, they also find irritation in throat, nose and feel thirty all time. Few people initially experience pain in cough and tightness in the chest, which is not purely connected with wheezing. The pain in chest normally occurs in around 75 percent patients that could be serious, and its intensity level is not related to the somberness of asthma attack. It might end by giving the mark of cough that produces thick mucus (asthma.com, 2013).

Difference between Asthma and Emphysema

Asthma and Emphysema are two different diseases with some symptoms in common. Asthma is the inflammatory disease of the airways that cause reversible obstruction of the airways. Asthma usually responds well to the treatment. Emphysema is defined as the disease of the lung tissues, particularly the alveolar sacs located at the end of the bronchial tubes. In emphysema, the lungs lose the normal elasticity that helps to keep the airways open. Due to poor inelasticity the small alveoli collapse upon expiration and it became impossible to exhale the air fully. This disease in most of the cases is irreversible, and response to the medical treatment is also not well supported. The progression of emphysema is very slow and over the period of the time as the disease becomes severe the patient requires a continuous supply of oxygen to breathe (The Asthma Center, 2013).

Concept Map

Diagnosis of the patient

The patient is a healthy female child of 3 years; she was suffering from runny nose and mild cough from last 3-4 days. One night she woke up with severe shortness of breath and expiratory wheezing. She was rushed to the emergency department, and her vitals, chest X-ray ...