Learning Objectives

• Discuss how airway patency is maintained in various airways
• Discuss how the EPP moves in normal and altered breathing and the role of dynamic airway compression in obstructive conditions
• Discuss the mechanistic and functional differences between obstructive and restrictive lung diseases
• Describe how lung function testing (spirometry) can be used to determine normal, obstructive, restrictive and mixed conditions
• Discuss the pathogenesis and lung function alterations that are associated with emphysema
• Discuss the various causes of restrictive lung diseases and how they alter lung function

Airway Patency

• where is the greatest friction in the airways of a healthy person?
• how does this change in a disease state?
• what creates the driving pressure for expiratory airflow?
• how does intra-airway pressure change as air flows through the airways? why?
• what is the equal pressure point (EPP)?
• where is the EPP located in a healthy person?

Flow-Related Airway Collapse

• [pressure gradient] cause compression/ collapse of airways if?
• what are the consequences of dynamic airway compression (DAC)?
• what maintains patency in airways without cartilage?
• why do these airways collapse during forced expiration?