Hypoxia and Medicine

BIOLOGY HELP Please?

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. Ok I'll give it a go but keep in mind that I'm a vet student not a doctor.The abnormal oxygen saturation means tat his blood is carrying less oxygen per litre- ergo he needs a greater cardiac output in order to supply the tissues with sufficient oxygen. This explains the elevated heart rate. I'm going to go with emphysema because he is a fairly heavy smoker and damage to the alveoli and surrounding lung tissue would explain why he has low oxygen saturation of the blood- there isn't efficient gas transfer. He's being given bronchodilators to open up his airways to allow more air into the lungs which should help his breathing. And the antibiotics are because the insides of his lungs are damaged and at risk from infection and thesmoking will have paralysed the cillia lining the respiratory tract so that the bacteria etc rapped in the mucous aren't swept to the back of the throat, instead they are sitting about and incresing his risk of getting a lung infection. Hope this helps but again- this has very little medical knowlege behind it and a fair bit of guesswork.