instructions:
Scenario: 76-year-old female patient complains of weight gain, shortness of breath, peripheral edema, and abdominal swelling. She has a history of congestive heart failure and admits to not taking her diuretic, as it makes her “have to get up every couple hours to go to the bathroom.” She now has to sleep on two pillows in order to get enough air.
In your Case Study Analysis related to the scenario provided, explain the following 3 questions in 1-2-page max:
The cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary pathophysiologic processes that result in the patient presenting these symptoms.
Any racial/ethnic variables that may impact physiological functioning.
How these processes interact to affect the patient.
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Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Analysis
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Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Analysis
From the case study, the patient health information can be used to explain the patient’s symptoms in relation to cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary processes. For instance, the cardiovascular process that influences the patient’s symptom is congestive heart failure, which is also linked to peripheral edema. At some point, when the heart becomes weak to pump the blood for proper circulation, this might result to blood accumulating in front of the heart (Verhoeff & Mitchell, 2017). Due to this and increasing blood pressure in the veins, the blood may seep out into the surrounding tissues, causing the swelling of the abdomen and the legs, as shown by the patient.
In relation to cardiopulmonary process, congestive heart failure could be the cause of pulmonary edema. Though this condition isn’t that common, it is life-threatening (Jearath, Vashisht, Rustagi, Raina & Sharma, 2016). This is caused when the heart’s left side is not that strong to pump back the blood that is flowing from the lungs, causing the lungs to be filled with fluid. Thereafter, accumulation of fluid in the lungs blood vessels makes the fluid to leak into the lung tissue. This process explains the cause of shallow breathing problems and shortness of breath by the patient. These creates the need for the patient to sleep on two pillows to get enough air. Apart from these, racial variables might also impact the physiological functioning of the patient. Due to a lack of proper care, African Americans are at a higher risk of cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary complications (Bahrami, Kronmal, Bluemke, Olson, Shea, Liu & Lima, 2008).
Congestive heart failure often causes pulmonary edema. The process begins when there is an increase in blood pressure in the vessels pushing fluid into the lungs air spaces. Through this, the normal movement of oxygen reduces due to the fluids. These processes meld to cause shortness of breath. Similarly, an increase in fluid movement from intravascular to interstitial space might cause the intravascular volume to get depleted, which might result in renal sodium retention when the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-vasopressin system gets activated (Dhondup & Qian, 2017). These processes might lead to kidney disorders, heart failure, liver failure, and even affecting mobility of the patient.
To sum up, these two processes, when they interact, they become life-threatening. Medical practitioners should know the symptoms and how to administer appropriate medication when a patient shows similar symptoms discussed. Besides, rational background and medical history can also provide a hint of the two pathophysiological processes and how to diagnose them.
References
Bahrami, H., Kronmal, R., Bluemke, D. A., Olson, J., Shea, S., Liu, K., … & Lima, J. A. (2008). Differences in the incidence of congestive heart failure by ethnicity: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis. Archives of internal medicine, 168(19), 2138-2145.
Dhondup, T., & Qian, Q. (2017). Electrolyte and acid-base disorders in chronic kidney disease and end-stage kidney failure. Blood purification, 43(1-3), 179-188.
Jearath, V., Vashisht, R., Rustagi, V., Raina, S., & Sharma, R. (2016). Pioglitazone-induced congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema in a patient with preserved ejection fraction. Journal of pharmacology & pharmacotherapeutics, 7(1), 41.
Verhoeff, K., & Mitchell, J. R. (2017). Cardiopulmonary physiology: why the heart and lungs are inextricably linked. Advances in physiology education, 41(3), 348-353.
