Gas Exchange Case Study

Patient is a 63 year old male complaining of cough that may have started 15 years ago but worsened with in the past 5 years since moving from Vietnam to the U.S. Currently living in SF Valley with cough being at its worse in the morning, often dry cough, sometimes productive throughout day. Patient denies fever, exception being from illness. Occasional red blood, chest pain, back pain, SOB, and DOE. Patient has stated that he has difficulty filling lungs with air and that the cold makes him cough more, while “Teas” tend to help a little. With all that is happening to this patient it leads me to ask, what is the process of gas exchange in the lungs? And from where does C02 come? As we know gas exchange is typically dependent on the balance between ventilation and pulmonary perfusion, this balance can very well be effected by factors as gravity, body position, physical property of the lung, and neurological as well as humoral factors, The CO2 in our body is produced by Glucose that we take into our bodies through food. The food we eat then has carbon that in our body mix’s with Oxygen that we take in with every breath of fresh air in a process

Based on research I have found the illness that comes close in my opinion to what this patient is suffering from is lung cancer. With the loss in weight within the past 5 years and the domed finger nails that has been statistically shown to appear as a symptom of lung cancer in 3 out of every 10 patients. Along with the 54 years of cigarette smoking and damage that may have been suffered during his war imprisonment in Vietnam, there are many red flags for this illness. Tobacco use is the major cause of lung cancer primarily with cigarette smoke as cancer cells may have acquired genetic lesions. Lung cancer being the leading cause in all cancer deaths with 28% in men and 26% in women with the peak age being between ages 55 and