Hypoxia and Medicine

Biology/medical help?

Raymond Harrison, a 64-year-old male was admitted to the hospital with fever, shaking chills, a nonproductive cough, and chest pain for six days. A chest x-ray revealed extensive accumulation of fluid in both lungs. The patient had mild hypertension and a275 pack/year smoking history. A physical exam revealed a blood pressure of 150/90, a body temperature of 101.8°F, and the patient was cyanotic (looked blue) and in respiratory distress. The patient’s heart rate was elevated at 100 beats per minute. An arterial blood gas test was performed and the oxygen saturation of the arterial blood was 72% (normal would be 94–100%). The blood test revealed an elevated How does the abnormal oxygen saturation value relate to the patient’s elevated heart rate? If you had to choose between emphysema and chronic bronchitis as your diagnosis, which would you choose and what evidence did you use to make this choice? Explain why doctors are using antibiotics and bronchodilators to treat this patient?

Public Comments

1. I would say he has Chronic Bronchitus because of the fever and shaking chills. Obviously when your body is not oxygenating blood as efficiently as it needs to, you need to pump more blood to maintain a normal oxygen level, thus the heart rate increases. The antibiotics will solve the underlying infection that has probably inflamed the bronchioles over the long term. The bronchodilators are for the acute respiratory distress allowing the lungs to open up.
2. This patient probably has pneumonia or chronic bronchitis with an exacerbation of acute bronchitis. Being treated with antibiotics because blood tests revealed that a bacteria rather than virus is the cause. Bronchodialters will open up the lungs and allow them to expand for more oxygen to enter them.