Pulmonary Hypertension in Children

How Lupus Affects The Lungs And Pulmonary System

Inflammation caused by lupus may affect the lungs in many ways, and can involve the membrane lining of the lungs, the lungs themselves, the blood vessels within the lungs, and the diaphragm.

Pleuritis

The most common way that lupus can affect your lungs is through inflammation of the pleura, the lining that covers the outside of the lungs. The symptom of pleuritis that you may experience is severe, often sharp, stabbing pain in a specific area or areas of your chest. The pain, which is called pleurisy, is made worse when you take a deep breath, cough, sneeze, or laugh. You may also experience shortness of breath. Sometimes an abnormal amount of fluid will build up in the space between your lungs and your chest wall; when it leaks out it is called a pleural effusion. Pain from pleurisy, with or without effusions, is found in 40 to 60 percent of people with lupus.

Pneumonitis

The term for inflammation within the lung tissue is pneumonitis. The symptoms of pneumonitis that you may experience are fever, chest pain, shortness of breath, and cough. An infection caused by bacteria, virus, or fungi is the most common cause of pneumonitis.

Chronic diffuse interstitial lung disease

When inflammation in the lungs is chronic, it can cause scarring. This scar tissue can prevent oxygen from moving easily from your lungs into your blood and may cause diffuse (widespread) interstitial lung disease. The symptoms that you may experience include a chronic dry cough, chest pain, and difficulty breathing during physical activity.

Pulmonary emboli

Blood clots that block the arteries leading to the lungs are called pulmonary emboli. These blood clots will cause chest pain and shortness of breath, but can also lead to a decrease in oxygen flow in your lungs. You are at increased risk for pulmonary emboli if you have antiphospholipid antibodies, vascular damage, and/or an inactive lifestyle.

Respiratory Physiology: Adaptations To High-level Exercise

Most exercise scientists would agree that the physiological determinants of peak endurance performance include the capacity to transport oxygen to the working muscle, diffusion from the muscle to the mitochondria, energy production and force generation, all influenced by signals from the central nervous system. In general, the capacity of the pulmonary system far exceeds the demands required for ventilation and gas exchange during exercise. Endurance training induces large and significant adaptations within the cardiovascular, musculoskeletal and haematological systems. However, the structural and functional properties of the lung and airways do not change in response to repetitive physical activity and, in elite athletes, the pulmonary system may become a limiting factor to exercise at sea level and altitude. As a consequence to this respiratory paradox, highly trained athletes may develop intrathoracic and extrathoracic obstruction, expiratory flow limitation, respiratory muscle fatigue and exercise-induced hypoxaemia. All of these maladaptations may influence performance.

The Respiratory System In Humans – WJEC

In humans air enters the body through the nasal cavity and flows into the following structures which are found in the human thoraxclosehuman thoraxThe ribs and upper backbone, and the organs found in the chest.:

Ventilation (the process of moving air into and out of the lungs) also requires the following structures:

The air that enters the nasal cavity flows down the trachea. The trachea has a number of adaptations:

Goblet cells produce mucus which traps dust, dirt and bacteria to prevent them entering the lungs.

Cilia are small hairs which beat to push the mucus back up the trachea so it can be swallowed and destroyed in the stomach.

Clean air then enters the two bronchi, one bronchus going to each lung. The bronchi in the lungs split into smaller and smaller tubes called bronchioles. These end in microscopic air sacs called alveoli.

The process of ventilation as a series of changes in pressure within the thorax can be modelled using the bell jar model. Parts of the model represent different parts of the respiratory system as shown here.

The model, which is air tight, represents the thorax, and air is only able to enter via the glass tube which represents the trachea.

As the rubber sheet is pulled down the volume of the jar increases, the pressure therefore decreases and air is drawn in through the glass tube inflating the balloons, which represent the lungs.

There are a number of similarities and differences between the model and the actual respiratory system.

---