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The causes of upper airway obstructions can be acute or chronic. More acute causes of upper airway obstruction include foreign body aspiration, blunt trauma to the neck, infections, and swelling due to allergies or other inflammatory conditions. [3] In children, viral infections such as croup or epiglottitis are frequent causes. [4]
It may be triggered by other things such as an upper respiratory tract infection, cold air, exercise, or smoke. Asthma is a common condition and affects over 300 million people around the world. [3] Asthma causes recurring episodes of wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing, particularly at night or in the early morning. [4]
One cause of obstruction, especially in young children, is inhalation of a foreign object such as a marble or toy. The object lodges in a small airway, and pneumonia develops in the obstructed area of the lung. Another cause of obstruction is lung cancer, which can block the flow of air.
Bronchomalacia is a term for weak cartilage in the walls of the bronchial tubes, often occurring in children under a day. Bronchomalacia means 'floppiness' of some part of the bronchi. Patients present with noisy breathing and/or wheezing. There is collapse of a main stem bronchus on exhalation. If the trachea is also involved the term ...
Lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) is a term often used as a synonym for pneumonia but can also be applied to other types of infection including lung abscess and acute bronchitis. Symptoms include shortness of breath , weakness, fever , coughing and fatigue. [ 3 ]
Viruses that cause respiratory infections are affected by environmental conditions like relative humidity and temperature. Temperate climate winters have lower relative humidity, which is known to increase the transmission of influenza. [29] Of the viruses that cause respiratory infections in humans, most have seasonal variation in prevalence.
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Exhalation (or expiration) is the flow of the breath out of an organism. In animals, it is the movement of air from the lungs out of the airways , to the external environment during breathing . This happens due to elastic properties of the lungs, as well as the internal intercostal muscles which lower the rib cage and decrease thoracic volume.