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Medicine Notes Respiratory System Notes

Clinical Aspects Of Respiratory Infections Notes

Updated Clinical Aspects Of Respiratory Infections Notes

Respiratory System Notes

Respiratory System

Approximately 49 pages

These notes are on the Respiratory System of the human body. helped me achieve a mark of 68% in my respiratory exam, which is the equivalent of a 2:1. The notes are based on a series of lectures on the subject. They are very clearly laid out and easy to follow. They cut out unnecessary information on the topic, making the notes very concise, and fast to get through. Anyone studying medicine, or any other subject requiring knowledge of the Respiratory system (e.g. physiology or anatomy), would ben...

The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our Respiratory System Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:

Lecture 3

Clinical aspects of respiratory infections

  • Intro

    • Pneumonia causes 10Xxmore deaths than all other infectious diseases together (UK)

    • Cause usually bacterial, need antibiotics

    • Most infections of URT are viral, do not need antibiotics

      • Inappropriate antibiotic treatment in patients=adverse effects

    • When patient first seen, rare for organism to be identified. Physician’s determine:

      • How ill patient is

      • Likely site of infection in tract

      • Most likely causative organism

    • Decision about antibiotics, hospital admission etc.

  • Is antibiotic treatment indicated?

    • Upper respiratory tract infections

      • Cough, sore throat or runny nose (& systemic symptoms)

      • Usually viral, self-limiting or minor

      • Important rate exceptions

        • Epiglottitis (Rapid progressive condition in children, Haemophilus influenza type b, Stridor, muffling of voice and drooling)

        • Diphtheria (grey adherent membrane on pharynx)

        • Suspicion of either condition=hospital admission

    • Acute bronchitis

      • Cough, purulent sputum

      • Viral or bacterial or atypical organism (mycoplasm or Chlamydia species)

      • Antibiotics do not hasten resolution if previously fit

      • Antibiotics recommended in patients with underlying lung diseases, have less pulmonary reserve

      • Acute-on-chronic bronchitis most common organisms Haemophilius influenza, Streptococcus pneumonia and viruses

    • Pneumonia

      • “Lower respiratory tract infection”= cough, dyspnoea, tachypnoea, pleuritic pain or physical signs in chest (crackles, consolidation, pleural rub/effusion)

      • Pneumonia or incipient pneumonia

      • Antibiotic treatment

  • Which antibiotic?

    • General

      • Choice in pneumonia depends mainly on clinical circumstances it occurs in

      • Additional info from clinical history, physical findings, radiology & haematological changes, but no single clinical, radiological or haematological picture is pathognomonic of any individual organism

      • Treatment based on clinical situations associated with different organisms

    • Community acquired pneumonia

      • Caused by one of small range of virulent organisms of which Streptococcus pneumonia is by far the commonest (70%)

      • Other common organisms include

        • Mycoplasm pneumoniae (epidemics)

        • Chlamydia species (including C. psittaci from birds)

        • Legionella species (spontaneously or epidemics)

      • Macrolides such as erythromycin or clarithromycin are active against these organisms & one of these drugs is usual first choice in community acquired

      • Severe infections, benzylpenicillin or ampicillin also added to provide extra activity against Streptococcus pneumonia

      • Other organisms that cause community acquired pneumonia less commonly

        • Influenza virus (epidemics)

        • Staphylococcus aureus (drug addicts or super infecting organism)

        • Klebsiella pneumonia...

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