COURSE  

NURS 6501 Advanced Pathophysiology

NURS 6501 Module 2 Week 4 Assignment; Case Study Analysis

Case Study

A 45-year-old woman complains of 3-day duration of shortness of breath, cough with thick green sputum production, and fevers. Patient has a history of COPD with chronic cough but states the cough has gotten much worse and is interfering with her sleep. Sputum is thicker and harder for her to expectorate. CXR reveals flattened diaphragm and increased AP diameter. Auscultation demonstrates hyper resonance and coarse rales and rhonchi throughout all lung fields.

ANSWER  

The cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary pathophysiologic processes that result in the patient presenting these symptoms

Based on this woman’s symptoms she is experiencing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbation. COPD is a group of lung diseases that cause airflow limitation that is typically progressive and is not fully reversible (McCance & Huether, 2019). Emphysema is one type of COPD. Emphysema is the destruction of alveolar walls and is when these walls become less elastic (Linden et al., 2019). The lungs become enlarged and the surface area of the lungs becomes condensed which affects movement of oxygen in and moving it to the bloodstream causing difficulty breathing. This woman’s symptoms match symptoms of emphysema. Symptoms of emphysema include cough that has gotten worse, shortness of breath, a cough with thick green sputum production, and hyper resonance and coarse rales and rhonchi on auscultation.……..Please click the icon below to purchase full answer at $13