Respiratory Physiology

1. The nurse forgot to fill in the respiratory rate for each patient. Rather than bother her, you decide to simply calculate this from the other data you have.

a. 6, 12, 20, 30, 40

2. For each patient, calculate the alveolar ventilation.


b. 5100, 4200, 3000, 1500, 0

3. If you were monitoring only the pulmonary ventilation you might conclude that these patients were all equally well off. How do the other data give us a better overall picture of each patient?

c. The respiratory rate lets you know how many breaths per minute the patient is taking and the tidal volume tells you how much air is taken in or out during a breath.

4. Which of these patients has a physically active lifestyle? Which is likely mostly sedentary? Support your opinion.


d. The most active is Patient 1 because you can tell they are breathing more air in and out. Patient 4 is not breathing as much, so you can tell he is more sedentary.

5. Which patient(s) would you be concerned about? Why?


e. Patient 5 has no alveolar ventilation, which could be a problem. They are also breathing too fast, but not getting enough air.

6. What might be a cause of the problem in these patients?

f. A disease that affects alveolar walls and therefore breathing, is emphysema.

7. What might you recommend for these patients? Why?

g. If they were smokers, I would strongly recommend quitting.


8. What kinds of things can affect the tidal volume and respiratory rate? Why are they affected by these things?


Exercise can definitely affect your tidal volume and respiratory rate. When you move a lot, your lungs bring in more oxygen, increasing your tidal volume.

9. Why is it important for doctors to look at a variety of vital statistics before making a diagnosis?

a. It’s important because looking at just a little of the information could be misleading. Even if one area of the chart is the same, this doesn’t mean all of the patients are the...