Pulmonary Fibrosis
Pulmonary Fibrosis is a condition where the lung tissue becomes thick and scarred. The thickening and scarring of the lungs makes it hard for the oxygen supply to be delivered throughout the body. The scarring can be caused by many different factors, but it is hard for doctors to figure out exactly what caused the onset of this disease. The damage caused by this disease cannot be repaired. Pulmonary Fibrosis usually affects the age group of forty to seventy years old. Men are more likely to develop this disease, but women can also get this disease. Pulmonary Fibrosis is not a transmittable disease. Little is actually known about how the disease develops. There seems to be a genetic connection and environmental factors that cause the disease to develop.
The causes of Pulmonary Fibrosis vary from a patient’s occupation to their medical conditions. Pulmonary Fibrosis is caused by environmental factors along with genetic factors. Genetics plays a role in the contraction by determining a person’s vulnerability. A person being in an environment with asbestos fibers, silica dust, grain dust, and bird or animal droppings is at risk for this disease. Patients who also have gone through radiation could be at risk depending on how much the lung was exposed and how long it was exposed to the radiation. Medications can also factor in to the cause of the disease. Chemotherapy drugs, heart medications, and some antibiotics have been linked to Pulmonary Fibrosis. A patient’s previous medical conditions can aid in the formation of this disease such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, scleroderma, and systemic lupus erythematosus. Some other known causes are smoking and lung infection.
Symptoms of Pulmonary Fibrosis may not always be p...
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Most of the time, it is from smoking. The tissue in the lungs will become inflame and produce mucous because of exposure to these chemicals. Theophylline and ß2 agonist will act to relax and dilate the airways and allow more oxygen to enter. They will also decrease the lungs sensitivity so that they do not react so much to inhaled chemicals.
Collapsed lungs happen most often as the result of some sort of trauma to the chest. This trauma includes but is not limited to rib fractures, gunshot wounds, knife wounds, or a hard hit to the chest, often the result of car accidents. There are also nonviolent causes for lung collapses, such as damaged lung tissue which is a result from smoking or other unhealthy activities. Unhealthy hung tissue is weaker than healthy lung tissue so it allows the lung to collapse more easily. Underlying undiagnosed medical conditions such as pneumonia, cystic fibrosis, tuberculosis, and lung cancer could also be causes of a collapsed lung. Another possible culprit of a collapsed lung is air blebs, small air filled blisters that present themselves on the outer lining of some people’s lungs. When air blubs rupture, they have the capacity to cause atelectasis.
Mrs. Jones has a history of COPD. She was already taking albuterol for her illness and it was ineffective when she took it that day. Mrs. Jones had been a smoker but had quit several years ago. According to Chojnowski (2003), smoking is a major causative factor in the development of COPD. Mrs. Jones's primary provider stated that she had a mixed type of COPD. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) was established to address the growing problem of COPD. The GOLD standards identify three conditions that contribute to the structural changes found in COPD: Chronic bronchiolitis, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. A mixed diagnosis means that the patient has a combination of these conditions (D., Chojnowski, 2003). Mrs. Jones chronically displayed the characteristic symptoms of COPD. "The characteristic symptoms are cough, sputum production, dyspnea on exertion, and decreased exercise tolerance." (D., Chojnowski, 2003, p. 27).
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, better known as COPD, is a disease that affects a person’s ability to breathe normal. COPD is a combination of two major lung diseases: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Bronchitis affects the bronchioles and emphysema affects the alveoli.
The principle cause of the COPD is long-term exposure to harmful airborne chemicals and particles. The best way for COPD patients to avoid getting worse is to avoid smoking (WebMD, 2016).
The functioning of the chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) is that it has a permanent decrease in the ability to force air out of the lungs. Consequently, it causes emphysema to become a more advanced disease with no cure. Emphysema is known for their permanent enlargement of the alveoli, which are accompanied by the destruction of the alveolar walls. The lungs lose their elasticity, so it loses its ability to recoil passively during expiration. People who have emphysema becomes exhausted fast because they need about fifteen to twenty percent of their body energy to breath which is more than what a healthy person needs. Smoking inhibits and destroys cilia in the conducting zone structures, which is the line of defense for the respiratory system.
Cystic Fibrosis is an inherited disease characterized by the buildup of thick, sticky mucous that can cause severe damage to the body’s organs. Mucous is usually a slippery substance that lubricates and protects the linings of the airway, digestive system, reproductive system and other organs and tissue. Problems with digestion can lead to diarrhea, malnutrition, poor growth, and weight-loss. Due to the abnormally thick mucous it can can clog airways, leading to breathing problems and bacterial infections in the lungs. Bacterial infections can lead to coughing, wheezing and inflammation. Overtime these infections can lead to permanent damage in the lungs including the formation of scar tissue, known as fibrosis and cysts in the lungs (Genetics Home Reference, 2013). The symptoms and signs of this disease vary but mostly include progressive damage to the respiratory system and chronic digestive system problems. An individuals’ lungs who are infected by cystic fibrosis have bacteria from an early stage. This bacteria can spread to the small airways, leading to the formation of bacterial micro-environments known as biofilms. Biofilms are difficult for antibodies to penetrate, therefore the bacteria repeatedly damage the lung and gradually remodel the airways, resulting in difficultly to eradicate the infection (Welsh, 1995). Cystic fibrosis patients may even have their airways chronically colonized be filamentous fungi and/or yeasts. Most men with cystic fibrosis have congenital bilateral absence of the vas deferens (CBAVD), a condition in which the tubes that carry sperm are blocked by mucous and do not develop properly. As well, women may experience complications in pregnancy. Either the c...
The main symptom of the disease is shortness of breath, which gets worse as the disease progresses. In severe cases, the patient may develop cor pulmonale, which is an enlargement and strain on the right side of the heart caused by chronic lung disease. Eventually, this may cause right-sided heart failure. Some patients develop emphysema as a complication of black lung disease. Others develop a severe type of black lung disease in which damage continues to the upper part of the lungs even after exposure to the dust has ended called progressive massive fibrosis.
Husain, A., (2010), The Lung, Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease, pp. 677-737, Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevier
Chronic bronchitis is a disorder that causes inflammation to the airway, mainly the bronchial tubules. It produces a chronic cough that lasts three consecutive months for more than two successive years (Vijayan,2013). Chronic Bronchitis is a member of the COPD family and is prominently seen in cigarette smokers. Other factors such as air pollutants, Asbestos, and working in coal mines contributes to inflammation. Once the irritant comes in contact with the mucosa of the bronchi it alters the composition causing hyperplasia of the glands and producing excessive sputum (Viayan,2013). Goblet cells also enlarge to contribute to the excessive secretion of sputum. This effects the cilia that carry out the mechanism of trapping foreign bodies to allow it to be expelled in the sputum, which are now damaged by the irritant making it impossible for the person to clear their airway. Since the mechanism of airway clearance is ineffective, the secretion builds up a thickened wall of the bronchioles causing constriction and increasing the work of breathing. The excessive build up of mucous could set up pneumonia. The alveoli are also damaged enabling the macrophages to eliminate bacteria putting the patient at risk for acquiring an infection.
While cystic fibrosis (CF) is not a new disease, there is still a lot to learn about it. In 1938 a pathologist, Dr Dorothy Andersen, provided the first clear description of cystic fibrosis. Before this time there had been reports of people that had the symptoms of someone with CF. During the seventeenth century children with the symptoms of CF were thought to be bewitched and their life expectancy was very short. Dr Dorothy Andersen gave this disease its name because cystic fibrosis refers to the scarring that is found on the pancreas. People with CF also have associated diseases like salt-loss syndrome, obstructive azoospermia, and gastrointestinal abnormalities. CF is inherited from one’s parents, making it a genetic disease. CF is caused by mutations in a certain gene that produces the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. This gene was first discovered in 1989 on chromosome pair 7. Cystic fibrosis is a recessive disease meaning both parents have to be a carrier. Whenever two CF carriers have a child together, there’s a 1 in 4 chance that their child will inherit the CF mutation. Although CF produces coughing it cannot be transmitted any other way than hereditary.
Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease; it is passed down through families. Cystic Fibrosis causes sticky mucus to build up in lungs, digestive track, and other areas of the body. The mucus clogs can lead to life threatening mucus infections. {Board, A.D.A.M. Editorial. Cystic fibrosis. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 16 May 2012. Web. 11 Jan. 2014.} Some of the most common symptoms of Cystic Fibrosis are salty skin, wheezing or shortness of breath, and persistent cough, sometimes with thick mucus called phlegm. {Phlegm. Dictionary .com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.} Other symptoms are poor growth or weight gain even with a good diet. {Children's Health." Symptoms of Cystic fibrosis. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.} Current treatments of Cystic fibrosis include chest physical therapy; where they pound chest and back allover with device to loosen mucus from lungs, or wear and inflatable therapy vest that uses airwaves to force mucus upper airways. Exercise, and Antibiosis, both oral and IV tube are also used as treatment. {"How Is Cystic fibrosis Treated?" - NHLBI, NIH. N....
Cystic fibrosis, also known as CF, affects over 30,000 children and adults world-wide. CF is a disease in the lungs and digestive system and is still incurable today. It is a disease that causes thick, abnormal mucus in the lungs, nasal polyps, fatigue, and can also damage organs in a person’s body. According to www.cff.org/aboutcf, over 70% of CF patients are diagnosed at two years of age. Cystic fibrosis is one of the most life-threatening diseases in the United States and is very common amongst chronic diseases. Cystic fibrosis is most commonly diagnosed in young children and sometimes adults.
Hello, I like your post; I had one patient with cystic fibrosis when I work CVICU. It is a very interesting topic, and I really want to know more about the disease process. Thank you for sharing!
The ARNP would concentrate her assessment on the respiratory system as Brian presented with a fever and stuffy nose, the condition of cystic fibrosis causes mucus to be thick and sticky which results in narrowing of the airways and hence reduction in air flow thereby affecting oxygenation(Book ref).From the scenario Brian’s height and weight is under the 10th percentile on the growth chart which means that his digestive system has also been affected, hence the physical assessment would be focused on the respiratory, digestive and the immune system.Cystic fibrosis affects the digestive system by blocking the flow of pancreatic enzymes due to obstruction of the thicken pancreatic secretions which blocks the ducts. This results in malabsorption