Anatomy and Physiology Exam 3

What is respiration?

The process of exchanging gases between the atmosphere and the cells of the body.

What is the respiratory system?

A set of passageways that filter, moisten, and warm incoming air and transport it into the body, lungs, and microscopic air sacs where gases are exchanged.

What are some of the events respiration consists of?

Ventilation, external respiration, transport of gases in the blood, internal respiration, cellular respiration.

What are the levels of organization that respiration occurs at?

Macroscopic, cellular, and molecular.

List some of the important physiological functions of the respiratory system.

Provide oxygen for cellular respiration, eliminate carbon dioxide produced by cellular respiration, and use the carbon dioxide to help maintain the pH of the internal environment.

What structures are in the upper respiratory tract?

Nose, nasal cavity, sinuses, pharynx, larynx.

What structures are in the lower respiratory tract?

Trachea, bronchial tree, lungs.

What is the function of the nostrils?

To provide openings for air to enter and leave the nasal cavity.

What is the nasal cavity?

A hollow space behind the nose.

What separates the nasal cavity into left and right portions?

The nasal septum.

What curls in from the lateral walls of the nasal cavity?

Nasal conchae.

What does the upper portion of the nasal cavity contain?

Olfactory receptors for sense of smell - lined with mucous membranes to function in conduction of air.

What lines the nasal cavity?

Pseudostratified ciliated columnar epithelium.

What do goblet cells produce?

Mucous.

What does smoking do to cilia?

It slows and eventually paralyzes them.

What is smoker’s cough?

A cough occurring when cilia no longer function and the excess mucus produced must be coughed up.

What is chronic bronchitis?

Bronchial thickening resulting in difficulty with expiration.

What is emphysema?

A chronic lung disease that causes progressive damage to alveolar walls.

What are sinuses?

Air-filled spaces in the bones of the skull.

What is the pharynx?

The space posterior to the nasal cavity, oral cavity, and larynx.

What are the two functions of the pharynx?

Passageway for food and air and sound production.

What are the three portions of the pharynx?

Nasopharynx, oropharynx, laryngopharynx.

What does air pass through on the way to the trachea?

The larynx.

What is the larynx?

An enlargement in the airway superior to the trachea, and interior and somewhat inferior to the laryngopharynx.

What important structure for sound production does the larynx house?

Vocal chords.

What is the larynx composed of?

A framework of muscles and cartilages bound by elastic tissue.

What are the three large cartilages found in the larynx?

Thyroid - largest, Adam’s apple

Cricoid - below thyroid cartilage

Epiglottic - part of flap like epiglottis.

What are the 2 horizontal vocal folds housed in the larynx?

Upper and lower.

What are the false vocal chords?

Upper vestibular folds with no sound production.

What are the true vocal chords?

Lower folds that produce vocal sounds when air passes over them.

What is the opening at the inferior end of the larynx called?

The glottis.

Where does the glottis lead to?

The trachea.

What is the glottis covered by?

The epiglottis.

What is the trachea?

A flexible tube for the passage of air to the lungs.

What does the trachea split into?

Left and right primary bronchi.

What are the left and right primary bronchi lined with?

Ciliated mucous membranes.

What prevents the collapse of the trachea?

20 C-shaped rings of hyaline cartilage.

What is a tracheostomy?

A procedure that cuts an opening in the trachea to insert a tube for air exchange.

What does the bronchial tree consist of?

Branched airways leading from the trachea to the microscopic air sacs in the lungs.

Where do the primary bronchi from the trachea enter?

The lungs.

Where do tubules end?

Blind sacs called alveoli.

Give the successive divisions of the branches from the trachea to the microscopic air sacs.

Right and left primary bronchi, secondary bronchi, tertiary bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli.

What are all of the structures of the bronchial tree down to the terminal bronchioles a part of?

The conduction pathway - transport air, no gas exchange.

What system are the respiratory bronchioles and alveoli a part of?

Respiratory - they perform gas exchange.