Respiratory Physiology and Diagnostics

📋 Course Outline

1. Clinical Respiratory Assessment
2. Airway and Alveolar Structure
3. Pulmonary Circulation and Gas Transfer
4. Lung Volumes and Spirometry
5. Ventilatory Dysfunction and Mechanics
6. Gas Exchange and Disease Patterns
7. Respiratory Imaging Procedures
8. Respiratory Medical Techniques

📖 1. Clinical Respiratory Assessment

📝 Essential Points

★ Must-know

• The cardinal symptoms of respiratory-system disease are cough and dyspnea.

⚡ Dyspnea may have pulmonary or non-pulmonary causes and may be acute or chronic; chest tightness or inability to take a deep breath suggests obstructive lung disease, whereas air hunger or a sense of suffocation suggests congestive heart failure.

📌 Cough is classified as acute when it lasts less than 3 weeks, subacute when it lasts 3–4 weeks, and chronic when it lasts more than 8 weeks.

⚡ Wheezing suggests airway disease such as asthma or COPD, whereas stridor suggests upper-airway obstruction.

Further detail

• On physical examination, dull percussion suggests pleural effusion and hyper-resonant percussion suggests pneumothorax.