Respiratory System

Question 1

Where are nerves and vessels found on ribs?

Answer 1

Along the inferior border of each rib in a costal groove

Question 2

How are the intercostal space named?

Answer 2

In accordance with the above rib

Question 3

How is the respiratory tract categorised?

Answer 3

Nasal cavity->bronchioles = conducting portion

Respiratory bronchioles->alveoli = respiratory portion

Question 4

What is it called when you get the following in the space between the serosa membranes?
A)air
B)blood
C)pus
D)watery transudate (fluid from capillaries)/exudate (water from cells)

Answer 4

A)pneumathorax
B)haemothorax
C)empynema
D)pleural effusion

Question 5

Cancer in the apex of the lung can cause what when it impinges on the brachial plexus?

Answer 5

Wasting of the lower arm muscles

Question 6

Cancer of the lung can cause what if it impinges on the left recurrent laryngeal nerve?

Answer 6

A hoarse voice

Question 7

What is the function of the larynx?

Answer 7

Contributes to resonance of voice
Stop foreign objects getting into the lungs
Close to build up pressure when coughing

Question 8

What types of epithelia do you find in the respiratory tract?

Answer 8

Pseudostratified - nasal cavity->secondary bronchi
Simple columnar - bronchioles and terminal bronchioles
Simple cuboidal - respiratory bronchioles and alveolar ducts
Simple squamous - alveoli

Question 9

What are points at the bottom of chest cavity that the lungs don’t penetrate?

Answer 9

The gutter margins

Question 10

Cancer of the lung can cause what when it impinges on the left or right phrenic nerve?

Answer 10

Paralysis of 1 side of the diaphragm

Question 11

What other cells and features would you find in the respiratory tract? (Those lying within the epithelia)

Answer 11

Cilia and goblet cells - Nasal cavity->secondary bronchi
Cilia and clara cells - bronchioles and terminal bronchioles
Few cilia and clara cells - respiratory bronchioles and alveolar ducts
Type 2 - alveoli

Question 12

What cells are found in the non olfactory region of the nasal cavity?

Answer 12

Pseudostratified columnar epithelial cells with non motile cilia, no goblet cells.

Question 13

How do the secondary and tertiary bronchi differ in structure to the primary bronchi?

Answer 13

Instead of complete regular circles of cartilage and muscle (in the primary bronchi), there are irregular crescent plates and islands of cartilage

Question 14

What 3 things can a Pancoast tumour cause?

Answer 14

Wasting of the thenar and hypothecate eminance
Clawing
Horner’s syndrome (localised sweating, droopy eyelid, constricted pupil)

Question 16

If the cilia in the olfactory region of the nasal cavity don’t/can’t move, why are they still there?

Answer 16

They increase surface area and therefore increase odour detection

Question 17

What is causes horner’s syndrome?

Answer 17

Pressure on the sympathetic trunk

Question 18

What cells are found in the olfactory region of the nasal cavity?

Answer 18

Pseudostratified columnar epithelium with non motile cilia, no goblet cells

Question 19

What is a pancoast tumour?

Answer 19

A tumour in the apex of the lungs

Question 20

What is the difference in structure between the trachea and the primary bronchi?

Answer 20

Trachea has C shaped hyaline cartilage rings, primary bronchi has cartilage and muscle completely encircling the lumen

Question 21

Why are foreign objects more likely to get lodges in the right bronchus?

Answer 21

Because the path of it is more vertical

Question 22

How do the bronchioles differ from the bronchi?

Answer 22

Bronchioles have no cartilage or glands

Question 23

What do the secretions from epithelium and submucosal glands contain?

Answer 23

Water, (serum) proteins, lysozyme, mucins

Question 24

What can a pancoast tumour impinge upon?

Answer 24

The brachial plexus

Question 25

What is the name of the artery that actually provide nutrients to the tissues of the lungs?

Answer 25

The bronchial artery

Question 26

What immune cells can be found in alveoli?

Answer 26

Macrophages

Question 27

What does the olfactory region of the nasal cavity do?

Answer 27

Detects odours

Question 27

What are clara cells?

Answer 27

Cells that secrete surfactant lipoproteins (which stop walls sticking together during expiration) and clara cell protein (CC16 - can be measured in serum and is indicative of leak across blood brain barrier)

Question 28

At what point in the respiratory tract do you get begin to get openings onto alveoli?

Answer 28

Respiratory bronchioles

Question 30

What are the walls of alveoli supported by?

Answer 30

Elastic fibre and reticular fibre

Question 31

Where are glands found in the respiratory tract?

Answer 31

In the submucosa

Question 31

What is the most abundant cell type in an alveoli wall?

Answer 31

Type 1 pneumocytes- squamous- permit gas exchange

Question 32

What is the cell that covers about 10% of an alveoli’s wall?

Answer 32

Type 2 pneumocytes- cuboidal- produce surfactant

Question 33

In what size alveoli do surfactants reduce the surface tension the most?

Answer 33

Small (as these have higher pressures)

Question 34

What is pneumonia?

Answer 34

Bacterial infection of the lungs, causing the alveoli to fill with immune cells

Question 36

What does surfactant do? And what cells produce it in the alveoli?

Answer 36

Reduces surface tension (which is necessary otherwise inspiration would be hard because molecules of water around the alveoli want to come together), produced by type 2 pneumocytes

Question 37

What can an alveoli open into?

Answer 37

Respiratory ducts, alveolar ducts, alveolar sacs and other alveoli (via pores)

Question 37

What does the pleural fluid do?

Answer 37

Reduces friction

Provides surface tension which prevents lungs form recoiling and collapsing