Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Chronic inflammation of the lungs is a key feature in aspiration pneumonia in elderly nursing home residents and presents as a sporadic fever (one day per week for several months). Radiological review shows chronic inflammation in the consolidated lung tissue, linking chronic micro-aspiration and chronic lung inflammation.
Aspiration can result in patient death through a variety of mechanisms. It is important to recognize and diagnose early in order to improve patient outcomes. Death from aspiration and aspiration-related syndromes is most common in elderly patients with known baseline risk factors, though it frequently goes unrecognized. [18]
Acute respiratory acidosis occurs when an abrupt failure of ventilation occurs. This failure in ventilation may be caused by depression of the central respiratory center by cerebral disease or drugs, inability to ventilate adequately due to neuromuscular disease (e.g., myasthenia gravis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Guillain–Barré syndrome, muscular dystrophy), or airway obstruction ...
Acid consumption from poisoning such as methanol ingestion, elevated levels of iron in the blood, and chronically decreased production of bicarbonate may also produce metabolic acidosis. Metabolic acidosis is compensated for in the lungs, as increased exhalation of carbon dioxide promptly shifts the buffering equation to reduce metabolic acid.
Lactic acidosis is commonly found in people who are unwell, such as those with severe heart and/or lung disease, a severe infection with sepsis, the systemic inflammatory response syndrome due to another cause, severe physical trauma, or severe depletion of body fluids. [3]
Treatment is focused on reversing the cause of inflammation and reducing symptoms. Corticosteroids may be given to reduce inflammation, often before long-term scarring occurs. Antibiotics are usually not helpful or needed, unless there is a secondary infection. Oxygen therapy may be helpful.
Rarer causes include hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT or Rendu-Osler-Weber syndrome), Goodpasture's syndrome, and granulomatosis with polyangiitis. A rare cause of hemoptysis in women is endometriosis , which leads to intermittent hemoptysis coinciding with menstrual periods in 7% of women with thoracic endometriosis syndrome. [ 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.