Pulmonary Flashcards
What information do you want to gather during the history of a pulmonary pt?
- Baseline pulmonary function
- exercise tolerance
- dyspnea
- orthopnea
- smoking
- OSA
- chronic lung disease
- severity
- medications
- recent hospitilizations
- frequency of exacerbations
- effective treatments
- Acute lung disease
- recent URIs
- antibiiotics
- current symptoms
- Previous anesthesia
- complications?
- Medical clearance
- evaluate for current status
- labs/diagnostic tests
What are the components of physical assessment?
- inspection/ observation
- auscultation
- palpation
- percussion
What can you observe about your pts pulmonary status?
- rate, pattern, effort of respiration
- tracheal position
- expansion of thorax and use of accessory muscles
- characteristics of skin and soft tissues
What do you hear with normal auscultation?
- First you will hear the tracheobronchial tree
- where: heard best over trachea, right sternoclavicular joint, posterior right interscapular space
- Quality: higher, hollow pitch; equal on inspiration and expiration w/ short pause
- Vesicular
- Where: lung tissue
- Quality: lower pitched, softer, shorter expiration
You shouldn’t hear bronchial air sounds anywhere other than the bronchial tree. What does it mean if you do?
- It means that there is no ventilation into the alveoli
- Could be caused by:
- Consolidation- sounds like low pitched bronchial breathing (pulm edema, etc)
- Cavitary disease- sounds like high pitched bronchial breathing. (tb, malignant, etc)
What are the abnormal adventitious sounds?
- Wheeze (high pitched), Rhonchi (low pitched)
- musical, usually on expiration but may be on inspiration
- Stridor
- high pitched, usally inspiration
- Crackles/Rales
- tearing velcro open
What is the purpose of pulmonary function tests?
When are they indicated?
- Purpose:
- standardized
- objective
- Indication
- assist in diagnosis of a disease
- to evaluate a treatment
- to monitor disease progression
- Assess the risk- will they tolerate removal of part of lung, etc.
Who would be appropriate patients to do PFTs on?
- Patients with evidence of COPD
- smokers with a persistent cough
- wheezing or dyspnea on exertion
- morbid obesity
- thoracic surgery patients
- open upper abdominal procedures
- patients >70 years
- Routine PFTs are NOT recommended
What are tests that assess abnormalities in gas exchange?
Mechanical dysfunction?
- Abnormalities of gas exchange
- ABG
- pulse oximetry
- capnography
- Mechanical dysfunction of lungs and chest well
- spirometry
- **All are considered PFTs
What are the normal values for Volume and flow?
How are these determined?
- Spirometry
- Volume- normal 80-120% of predicted value
- Flow- normal is 80% of predicted value
- Predicted values based on:
- age
- height/weight
- gender
- ethnicity
Quick review of pulmonary disease:
Obstructive
Restrictive
- Obstructive
- airflow obstruction- chronic bronchitis or emphysema; progressive
- Asthma- chronic inflammatory disorder; reversible
- Restrictive
- proportional decreases in ALL lung volumes
What is Vital capacity?
- Most commonly measured; measured by simple spirometry
- Maximal inspiration followed by maximal exhalation to RV
- independent of rate of effort
- values should decrease as person goes from sitting to supine
- Normal is >/=80% of predicted value
What is Forced Vital Capacity (FVC)?
How do you interpret the results?
- Pt takes in maximum inspiration and forces exhalation
- Function of volume/time
- measures resistance to flow
- depends on pts effort and cooperation
- Interpretation:
- normal: 80-120%
- Mild: 70-79%
- Moderate: 50-69%
- Severe: <50%

What is the Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)?
- Volume of air forcefully expired from full inspiration in the first second
- Normal is 75-80% of FVC
- Depends on effort and cooperation
- Interpretation:
- Normal: >75%
- Mild: 60-75%
- Moderate: 50-59%
- Severe: <49%

How do pulmonary function tests compare btw obstructive and restrictive disease?
(table)

What is the Forced expiratory flow 25-75% (FEF25-75%)?
How is it interpreted?
- Mean forced expiratory flow during the middle of the FVC
- May be independent of effort and shows status of the small airways
- Sensitive to early stages of obstructive disease
- More reliable than FEV1/FVC ratio
- Interpretation:
- Normal: >60%
- Mild: 40-60%
- Moderate: 20-40%
- Severe: <10%

What is Maximum voluntary ventilation (MVV)?
What happens to the MVV with obstructive disease?
Restrictive?
- the largest volume that can be breathed in one minute by voluntary effort
- test is actually performed over 10, 12, or 15 seconds
- Normal results may vary up to 3%
- MVV reduced is obstructive disease
- MVV normal is restrictive disease
- might be reduced with muscular disorders due to progressive weakness
- **not often used anymore, too much variability in results
What is the Functional residual capacity (FRC)?
What is its function?
- Volume of gas in the lungs after passive exhalation
- RV is the volume of gas in lungs after forced maximal expiration
- Function:
- It is a poing on the pressure-volume curve for resting ventilation
- Quantify the degree of pulmonary restriction
How is FRC measured?
- Measured indirectly
- Nitrogen wash-out (breath 100%FiO2
- Nitrogen analyzer attached to a spirometer
- Nitrogen measured w/each breath
- End point is when the alveolar nitrogen concentration falls below 7%, usually takes about 7-10 minutes
- measure total volume required for wash-out
Describe a flow volume loop
- Top part is exhalation, bottom is inhalation
- steep climb is the effort dependent exhalation
- flow is L/sec- y axis
- volume is L- x axis

Why is there a curve on the flow volume loop for obstructive disease?
because after you force the initial air out, the airways are starting to collaps, decreasing the rate of the rest of the air
???
What would you expect a flow volume look like for restrictive disease?
- same shape as normal, but lower volume

What does the blood flow through the lungs depend on?
- Blood flow in lungs largely gravity dependent
- alveolar- capillary beds are softer, less rigid
- surrounding tissues can cause resistance through the capillaries- can be squished
- Flood flow depends on relationship btw:
- pulmonary artery pressure (Ppa)
- Alveolar pressure (PA)
- Pulmonary venous pressure (Ppv)
What are the different zones of the lungs?
What is different between them?
- Zone 1: PA > Pa> Pv
- most independent on gravity
- Alveolar pressure is atmospheric
- Pa < PA does not occur under normal circumstances- seen in shock when pressure isnt high enough to perfuse
- ventilation, but little perfusion (dead space)
- Zone 2: Pa >PA > Pv
- Pa pressure increased d/t hydrostatic effect gravity)
- best matched ventilation and perfusion
- most alveoli are here
- Zone 3: Pa >Pv > PA
- Pv >PA
- perfusion greater than ventilation (shunt)
- greater change in pressure here during inspiration that at the top, more gas sucked into bases

