Question

1. What would a spirograph look like for a patient with an obstructive lung disease? Explain using a description of lung volumes and capacities.

2. What would a spirograph look like for a patient with a restrictive lung disease? Explain using a description of lung volumes and capacities.

****please use your own world ****

Answer 1

Obstructive lung diseases include conditions that make it hard to exhale all the air in the lungs. People with restrictive lung disease have difficulty fully expanding their lungs with air.

Obstructive and restrictive lung disease share the same main symptom: shortness of breath with exertion.

What Is Obstructive Lung Disease?

People with obstructive lung disease have shortness of breath due to difficulty exhaling all the air from the lungs. Because of damage to the lungs or narrowing of the airways inside the lungs, exhaled air comes out more slowly than normal. At the end of a full exhalation, an abnormally high amount of air may still linger in the lungs.

The most common causes of obstructive lung disease are:

• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis
• Asthma
• Bronchiectasis
• Cystic fibrosis

Obstructive lung disease makes it harder to breathe, especially during increased activity or exertion. As the rate of breathing increases, there is less time to breathe all the air out before the next inhalation.

What Is Restrictive Lung Disease?

People with restrictive lung disease cannot fully fill their lungs with air. Their lungs are restricted from fully expanding.

Restrictive lung disease most often results from a condition causing stiffness in the lungs themselves. In other cases, stiffness of the chest wall, weak muscles, or damaged nerves may cause the restriction in lung expansion.

Some conditions causing restrictive lung disease are:

• Interstitial lung disease, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
• Sarcoidosis, an autoimmune disease
• Obesity, including obesity hypoventilation syndrome
• Scoliosis
• Neuromuscular disease, such as muscular dystrophy or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

1)

Spirometry testing and COPD

Spirometry is a tool that plays an important role in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).It’s used to help diagnose and measure breathing difficulties, like shortness of breath, cough, or mucus production.

Spirometry can detect COPD even in its earliest stage, even before any obvious symptoms are noticeable.Along with diagnosing COPD, this test can also help track progression of the disease, assist in staging, and even help to determine treatments that might be most effective.

Spirometry will measure the total amount that you were able to exhale, called the forced vital capacity (FVC), as well as how much was exhaled in the first second, called the forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1).

FEV1 is also influenced by other factors including your age, sex, height, and ethnicity. The FEV1 is calculated as a percentage of the FVC (FEV1/FVC).That percentage was able to confirm a diagnosis of COPD, it will also let you know how the disease is progressing.

COPD stage 1

The first stage is considered mild. Your FEV1is equal to or greater than the predicted normal values with an FEV1/FVC less than 70 percent.

In this stage, your symptoms are most likely to be very mild.

COPD stage 2

Your FEV1 will fall between 50 percent and 79 percent of the predicted normal values with an FEV1/FVC of less than 70 percent.

Symptoms, like shortness of breath after activity and cough and sputum production, are more noticeable. Your COPD is considered to be moderate.

COPD stage 3

Your FEV1 falls somewhere between 30 percent and 49 percent of the normal predicted values and your FEV1/FVC is less than 70 percent.

In this severe stage, shortness of breath, fatigue, and a lower tolerance to physical activity are usually noticeable. Episodes of COPD exacerbation are also common in severe COPD.

COPD stage 4

This is the most severe stage of COPD. Your FEV1is less than 30 percent of normal predicted values or less than 50 percent with chronic respiratory failure.

At this stage, your quality of life is greatly impacted and exacerbations can be life-threatening.

2) Spirometry test for restrictive lung disease:-

Spirometry tests for restrictive lung disease include:

• Forced vital capacity (FVC) test, which involves inhaling and filling the lungs with as much air as possible, then exhaling with as much force as possible. The FVC of those with restrictive lung diseases is typically decreased. A FVC value of less than or equal to 80 percent of what is expected can be a sign of a restrictive disease.
• Forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) test, which measures the amount of air exhaled during the first second of the FVC test. Most people expel about three-quarters of the air inhaled during this initial period of exhalation. In restrictive disease, because the FVC is usually reduced, the FEV1 will be lower, proportionally.
• FEVI to FVC ratio test, which compares the amount of air expelled during the first second of exhalation (FEV1) to the total amount of air exhaled during an FVC test. This ratio is often normal or even increased in those with restrictive lung disease