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Abstract
This article, which forms part of the life sciences series and is the first of two articles on the respiratory system, describes the anatomy of the respiratory system and explains the mechanics of respiration. It provides a brief overview of three common respiratory disorders: pneumonia, pulmonary embolism and pulmonary tuberculosis.
The second article discusses gaseous exchange and the control of ventilation in more detail.
Keywords
Pulmonary embolism, pulmonary ventilation, respiratory system and disorders
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THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM is divided into the upper and lower respiratory tracts. The upper respiratory tract consists of the nose, pharynx, larynx and trachea, and the lower respiratory tract consists of the leftand right bronchi, bronchial tree and lungs (Figure 1). The main function of the respiratory system is gaseous exchange - the transport of oxygen from the air to the blood and removal of carbon dioxide from the blood (Gould and Dyer 2011).
External respiration refers to the exchange of gases between the lungs and blood. Internal respiration refers to the exchange of gases between the blood and body cells and tissues, and the use of these gases during cellular metabolic processes. Therefore, internal respiration occurs outside the respiratory system.
Respiration is an important homeostatic mechanism (Thibodeau and Patton 2012), which helps to maintain a stable internal environment in terms of oxygen and carbon dioxide use and production. This is essential because humans are vulnerable to internal and external alterations in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. For example, increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the blood (hypercapnia) result in a decrease in blood pH and can lead to respiratory acidosis, where the lungs cannot remove all of the carbon dioxide the body produces.
Upper respiratory tract
Nose
Anatomically, the nose can be divided into external and internal components. The external part of the nose is visible and consists of the bony framework: the maxilla, and frontal and nasal bones. There is also a cartilaginous framework composed of septal-nasal cartilage, lateral nasal cartilage and alar cartilage. The cartilage makes the...