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The conducting zone also functions to offer a low resistance pathway for airflow. It provides a major defense role in its filtering abilities. The respiratory zone includes the respiratory bronchioles, alveolar ducts, and alveoli, and is the site of oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange with the blood. The respiratory bronchioles and the alveolar ...
However, transmural pressure across the wall of the blood vessels increases down this zone due to gravity. Consequently the vessels wall are more stretched so the caliber of the vessels increases causing an increase in flow due to lower resistance. Zone 4 can be seen at the lung bases at low lung volumes or in pulmonary edema.
The lungs are part of the lower respiratory tract that begins at the trachea and branches into the bronchi and bronchioles, which receive air breathed in via the conducting zone. These divide until air reaches microscopic alveoli , where gas exchange takes place.
A bronchus (/ ˈ b r ɒ ŋ k ə s / BRONG-kəs; pl.: bronchi, / ˈ b r ɒ ŋ k aɪ / BRONG-ky) is a passage or airway in the lower respiratory tract that conducts air into the lungs.The first or primary bronchi to branch from the trachea at the carina are the right main bronchus and the left main bronchus.
But bronchial circulation supplies fully oxygenated arterial blood to the lung tissues themselves. This blood supplies the bronchi and the pleurae to meet their nutritional requirements. [citation needed] Because of the dual blood supply to the lungs from both the bronchial and the pulmonary circulation, this tissue is more resistant to infarction.
The primary purpose of the respiratory system is the equalizing of the partial pressures of the respiratory gases in the alveolar air with those in the pulmonary capillary blood (Fig. 11). This process occurs by simple diffusion , [ 22 ] across a very thin membrane (known as the blood–air barrier ), which forms the walls of the pulmonary ...
In healthy lungs where the alveolar dead space is small, Fowler's method accurately measures the anatomic dead space using a single breath nitrogen washout technique. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] The normal value for dead space volume (in mL) is approximately the lean mass of the body (in pounds), and averages about a third of the resting tidal volume (450-500 mL).
Failure of the barrier may occur in a pulmonary barotrauma.This can be a result of several possible causes, including blast injury, swimming-induced pulmonary edema, and breathing gas entrapment or retention in the lung during depressurization, which can occur during ascent from underwater diving or loss of pressure from a pressurized vehicle, habitat or pressure suit.