Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A pulmonary alveolus (pl. alveoli; from Latin alveolus 'little cavity'), also called an air sac or air space, is one of millions of hollow, distensible cup-shaped cavities in the lungs where pulmonary gas exchange takes place. [1] Oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide at the blood–air barrier between the alveolar air and the pulmonary ...
The lungs are the largest organs in the lower respiratory tract. The lungs are suspended within the pleural cavity of the thorax. The pleurae are two thin membranes, one cell layer thick, which surround the lungs. The inner (visceral pleura) covers the lungs and the outer (parietal pleura) lines the inner surface of the chest wall. This ...
The surface tension of a watery surface (the water-air interface) tends to make that surface shrink. [6] When that surface is curved as it is in the alveoli of the lungs, the shrinkage of the surface decreases the diameter of the alveoli. The more acute the curvature of the water-air interface the greater the tendency for the alveolus to ...
The lungs of amphibians typically have a few narrow internal walls of soft tissue around the outer walls, increasing the respiratory surface area and giving the lung a honeycomb appearance. In some salamanders, even these are lacking, and the lung has a smooth wall.
This blood–air barrier is extremely thin (approximately 600 nm-2μm; in some places merely 200 nm) to allow sufficient oxygen diffusion, yet it is extremely strong. This strength comes from the type IV collagen in between the endothelial and epithelial cells. Damage can occur to this barrier at a pressure difference of around 40 millimetres ...
They may be described as fine (soft, high-pitched) or coarse (louder, low-pitched). These are the result of alveoli opening due to increased air pressure during inspiration. Common causes include congestive heart failure. [22] Stridor a high-pitched musical breath sound resulting from turbulent air flow in the larynx or lower in the bronchial ...
The Parietal includes the inner surface of the rib cage and the upper surface of the diaphragm, as well as the side surfaces of the mediastinum, from which it separates the pleural cavity. It joins the visceral pleura at the pericardial base of the pulmonary hilum and pulmonary ligament as a smooth but acutely angled circumferential junction ...
Lungs showing bronchi and bronchioles. The trachea divides into the left main bronchus which supplies the left lung, and the right main bronchus which supplies the right lung. As they enter the lungs these primary bronchi branch into secondary bronchi known as lobar bronchi which supply each lobe of the lung.