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Emphysema
Emphysema is a lung disease in which tissues needed to support the lungs are destroyed. Emphysema is one of the several diseases known collectively as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Emphysema is most often caused by smoking.
292 Questions
What are risk factors of emphysema?
Emphysema is a condition that prevents your lungs from getting enough oxygen into your system. Oxygen is used throughout the body in all of its processes Reduced oxygen levels can lead to brain damage, muscular damage including the heart and a constant feeling of breathlessness. The greater risk is that it Will eventually kill you if you have it.
What are the effects of emphysema on your breathing?
Wheezing, coughing, all around lack of oxygen to your lungs. Until you have an attack, you don't know just how much work it takes to breathe.
What might happen if you give such a person high levels of supplemental O2?
Well, a couple of things could happen. One, you could kill your brain with too much oxygen. Or, nothing would happen since the sacs in your lungs are filled with tar from cigarettes
How can emphysema and congestive heart failure can lead to acid base imbalance?
I am too assume you are asking imbalances because normally the body balances acid-base
This is a very complex process.
there are four main types of acid-base imbalance in the body.
Respiratory Acidosis (Low pH)
Metabolic Acidosis (Low pH)
Respiratory Alkalosis (High pH)
Metabolic Alkalosis (High pH)
Respiratory means that the imbalance is caused by the lungs
Metabolic means that the imbalance is caused by the cells in your body
In emphysema {or a form of chronic(long-term) obstructive(blocking) pulmonary(involves the lungs) disease(abnormal condition in body) or COPD}
the lungs cannot properly remove CO2
(oxygen is breathed in, used by cells in your body and the cells release carbon dioxide or CO2 as waste which is breathed out)
Emphysema(COPD) is the destruction of the elastic tissue in the thousands of little are sacs in the lungs. Because the sacs can no longer push the CO2 out of the lungs the CO2 gets trapped and builds up.
when CO2 builds up short term it will caused increased breathing rate (CO2 tells your brain to breath faster when it builds up)
when CO2 builds up long term the blood will compensate through chemically changing the CO2 into other chemicals
CO2 + H2O <--> H2CO3 <--> HCO3- + H+ (equilibrium equation)
Once the CO2 Builds up long term it will cause the above chemical equation to change the CO2 eventually into HCO3- and H+ .
H+ will increase in the blood as more and more carbon dioxide is converted.
pH simply measures the amount of H+ ions in an exponential numbering system
the more the H the lower the number (i know its the opposite of what you would think)
When the pH gets low (or H ions in the blood gets to high) this can cause
Respiratory Acidosis (lung/breathing caused acidic blood)
the body can only operate in a narrow pH range of 7.35-7.45
If the blood goes above or below it can cause serious trouble and eventually put someone into a coma or cause death
people with COPD develop increased CO2 over such a long period of time that the body will slowly become use to the high CO2 in the lungs but the person would still be at risk for this type of imbalance.
Because CO2 tells your brain to make you breath faster (not a lack of oxygen)
people with COPD experience the need to breath faster especially when moving around a lot or exercising more frequently. NEVER EVER should a COPD or emphysema patient receive more than 2L/min (Metric) of oxygen while on oxygen therapy. Increasing the oxygen in the lungs will force CO2 out but this could cause the brain to say "well there is less CO2 so i don't need to breath as much" and this could cause a person's breathing to slow so much that they may stop breathing all together.
What structure of the human respiratory system is altered by emphysema?
destruction in the air sacks distal to the terminal bronchiol or in simple term the destruction of alveoli. The chest usually become hyperinflated due to the excessive action of sucking the air in due to the obstruction
How does having emphysema affect oxygen uptake in the lungs?
Yes, the alveoli will either break down or fuse. Resulting in a lung that can obtain adequate oxygen levels.
Emphysema (a chronic condition that affect the lungs which cause the loss of the natural elasticity of the lung's air sacs) is very rare in young people (most common among people aged 50 and older. Those with inherited emphysema may experience the onset as early as their thirties or forties) but the incidence steadily increases as people grow older, particularly during or after middle age. This is believed to be due in large part to the cumulative effect of smoking on the lungs. One person cannot catch it from another. Emphysema is more common in men than it is in women, probably because more men smoke cigarettes than women. However, it is believed that this difference will become smaller because more teenage girls and young women are smoking cigarettes today than years ago. Heavier smoking among men over the past several decades is believed to account for the present imbalance in numbers.
Hope this answer was useful ;)
What age or groups of people usually acquire emphysema?
Anyone can suffer from emphysema, it usually is more popular in smokers, so it depends on what age you start to smoke ;0
Does emphysema cause labored breathing?
Yes, shortness of breath and labored breathing is one symptom of chronic lung conditions. The person cannot get enough O2 or get rid of enough CO2 because many of the alveoli are collapsed.
Is emphysema different from lung cancer?
Emphysema is a type of lung cancer that can be caused by the same things lung cancer is caused from with many complications.
Mechanisms of pursed lip breathing to patient's with emphysema?
yes until easy the air exhalation from mouth because the pressure in the lung called intrapulmonary pressure high than the atmospheric pressure.
narrowing airway
Emphysema is a lung condition in which tiny air sacs in the lungs - alveoli - fill up with air. As the air continues to build up in these sacs, they expand, and may break or become damaged and form scar tissue.
What type of condition is emphysema?
The name is emphysema , not emophysema . It causes destruction in the alveoli in our lungs .So the affected person can't breathe properly and hyperventilation occurs .
How does emphysema effect the total area available for gas exchange?
It decreases the effective surface area of the lungs, so less gas will be exchanged during each breath.
No, emphysema is not a form of cancer. Emphysema is a type of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) that is characterized by the destruction of the air sacs (alveoli) in the lungs. This leads to difficulty breathing, as the damaged air sacs are unable to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide effectively.
Emphysema is usually caused by long-term exposure to irritants, such as tobacco smoke, pollution, and chemical fumes. It is a progressive disease, which means that it gets worse over time.
While emphysema does not directly cause cancer, people with emphysema are at increased risk of developing lung cancer due to the damage caused to their lungs by the disease. Additionally, smoking is a major risk factor for both emphysema and lung cancer.
What does emphysema feel like?
Emphysema is a chronic lung condition in which a person is unable to get enough oxygen (O2) and unable to expel enough carbon dioxide (CO2) However, this O2-CO2 exchange problem is very unique-- it cannot be helped or cured by simply giving more O2.
In normal healthy lungs, the lungs and brain work together. When the brain senses high CO2 building up, it triggers us to take a breath to get O2 and to expel air to release CO2.
But, in emphysema, the brain and lungs get used to the fact that the blood contains higher CO2. If an emphysema patient is given high O2, such as 8 liters per minute, the person can stop breathing. *Therefore, it is important that paramedics and hospital workers know the patient has emphysema so that supplemental oxygen delivery is kept around 2 liters per minute.
You've asked what it feels like to have emphysema. First, it is scary because the person cannot get enough air no matter what they try. Most patients have to sit up all the time, including to sleep. Lying down makes the person feel like they have a pillow over their mouth and nose; the person feels like they are suffocating. When people feel like they are suffocating, they panic (normal reaction), so they fight to get upright if someone tries to put them flat on a bed.
As the disease progresses, the lungs fill with a sticky thick mucous. The lungs react by initiating coughing to remove the mucous. The person coughs up thick phlegm that is hard to cough up and out. The lungs don't contract as well, even in coughing, so no matter how much the person coughs, they still feel the lungs are clogged. If the thick mucous is low, deep down in the lungs near the aveoli (where O2 and CO2 exchange takes place), the person can feel like they are drowning. Again, the normal reaction to a "drowning feeling" is panic and "fighting to get air".
The person's face will often turn red when they are coughing. The exertion does not help the lack of air situation. They will also start sweating profusely during heavy coughing. Nights may often be sleepless because of coughing and because it is hard to rest sitting up.
The person may not want to move much because it's hard to get air. Shortness of breath often is present with mild exertion. Just to walk a few feet to the bathroom feels too hard. So people with emphysema don't like to drink much since then, they'd have to urinate. The decreased fluids make the mucous thicker and harder to cough up the phlegm.
The person's life becomes one centered on "getting air". Many patients detest heat because it's harder to breathe. Patients will even stand at an open door during winter, just to get "enough air". Many sleep with a fan directed on the face. Many need supplemental continuous O2 at home, so there is usually 1 to 3 O2 tanks in the home.
The patient's lips and nails may turn blue when O2 stats are down. Fingernails often grow rounded, blunted, and oddly shaped as a sign of low blood oxygenation.
Most patients feel embrarrassment because the condition makes them look and feel "different" from everyone else. Patients also feel "losses" because slowly, they have to give up things they normally do. Life is permanently changed when you can't breathe well.
Many patients feel humiliated when outsiders accuse them of getting emphysema from prior smoking of cigarettes, when some emphysema patients have never smoked even one cigarette. It is possible to develop emphysema from causes other than smoking. For example, many people who grew up with coal furnances to heat the home ended up with emphysema. Some occupations increase the exposure to lung irritants.
Many patients come to a resigned outlook about the condition. They know it will never improve. They know the disease will kill, whether from mucous plugging the airways, or from a secondary infection.
Does everyone with emphysema die from emphysema?
yes. COPD is a long term condition that would later result in inability of the lungs to retain as much oxygen as possible due to insufficient space for gas exchange. a decrease amount of oxygen in the blood would activate the body's compensatory machanisms but for a short period only. as a result hypoxemia will burden the heart and other vital organs until it leads to multiple organ failure then death.
Why does a person with severe emphysema sometimes use a portable oxygen tank?
Because their lungs are full of tar and death.
