Reference no: EM132561865
A 77-year-old with a history of chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD), just returned from a vacation with her grandchildren. Shortly thereafter, she began to note a productive cough, fever, chills, fatigue, and dyspnea. During the night, she experienced increasing shortness of breath and visited an urgent care center where she was diagnosed with pneumonia.
1. Explain how COPD affects the following. Support your answer with the signs and symptoms that accompany these changes.
-Ventilation
-Gas exchange
-Alveolar size and shape
-Lung elasticity
2. Discuss in detail the hypoxic drive as it pertains to COPD patients.
3. Discuss how a diagnosis of pneumonia further compromises a patient with COPD.
4. Patients with COPD can develop a secondary pneumothorax due to bleb formation. Using the concept of normal ventilation and pressure gradient changes, explain how this can occur.
5. What acid-base disturbance would you expect to develop in a patient with a respiratory compromise or disease process. Provide rationales for your answer.