Unit 4 Seminar 551
This seminar on RSV, bronchitis, and respiratory review was helpful, in my opinion. The
first admin things that was!covered were the impending midterm exam and the availability of the
Unit 3 seminar tape. He made it clear that all material up to Unit 5 would be covered in the
cumulative midterm.
After that, it!went onto the main subject, beginning with a case study about Brad, a coal
miner. I thought the information about pneumoconiosis, an interstitial lung disease, was
interesting in!the first case study on the coal miner that came up in the seminar. We went over the
several ways that coal dust damages the lungs, such as direct toxicity and oxygen species
activation. The processes affecting diffusion capacities across alveolar membranes in lung
disorders were better understood thanks to this case study too.
I learned!about several things that can affect lung function, including airway obstruction,
alveolar injury, membrane thickness, and loss of lung compliance.
Several important respiratory physiology concepts were covered and including:
Pulmonary circulation
Ventilation
Gas exchange
Oxygen utilization
Lung elasticity
Surface tension
The description of pulmonary circulation was very helpful to me since it gave me a clear
picture of how blood travels through the lungs and helps the alveolar sacs exchange gases. Its
