Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper

76-year-old female patient complains of weight gain, shortness of breath, peripheral oedema, 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 Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper.

The lungs and heart emerge as paramount organs in the human body that works symbiotically in upholding body homeostasis. For instance, in situations when one of these organs fails or is adversely affected the other organ struggles to maintain the demands of the body. The overburdened organ is thereafter weakened by excess work and ultimately fails to respond (Chaudhry, 2021). The heart together with the lungs has a vital role in the human body and should be well maintained for active performance in the body. In addition, it is crucial to ensure regular screening and clinical examinations of these two organs to ensure they are healthy as their failure affects many other functions of human wellbeing. The aspect of pathophysiology in evaluating the diverse symptoms of patients and how they affect normal functioning and the effects of the heart and lungs to the aforementioned symptoms Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper.

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Cardiovascular and Cardiopulmonary Pathophysiologic Processes

Cardiovascular is a type of illness that affects the blood vessels or the heart. Risks of cardiovascular illnesses are increased by several aspects among the n high cholesterol, obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, lack of physical exercise, and taking unhealthy diets. On the other hand, cardiopulmonary disease is the one that affects the heart and the lungs. An important cardiopulmonary illness includes chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) (King, 2022). In exploring the symptoms mentioned for the 76-year old female patient including the shortness of breath the examination can begin with exploring the cardiovascular system as it is closely linked with COPD (Schwinger, 2021)Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper. In such a situation, the female patient may be at risk of heart failure that may be caused by the low supply of oxygen in the heart and the eventual increase in blood pressure.

The symptoms shown by the 76-year-old female patient such as shortness of breath, weight gain, abdominal swelling, and peripheral edema may be a result of health failure. According to Schwinger (2021), heart failure may be highly related to the said symptoms which reduce the ability of the heart to contract normally. The failure of the heart to function in an abnormal way greatly affects the cardiac output and denies crucial supplies to the body. For instance, this increasing demands impacts the left ventricle performance also called the left atrial filing or preload pressure which rises. This causes the shortness of breath, pulmonary congestion and dyspnea are some of the symptoms when the patient due to her heart’s challenges of pumping blood in the body (Schwinger, 2021)Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper. The blood that is not circulated in the body remains in the heart hence affecting its functioning. This also causes an increase in blood pressure along the veins and causes the fluids in the blood to escape into the surrounding body tissues. Increased fluids in the tissues causes swelling to some body parts such as the legs and others buildup up in the abdomen (King, 2022). The reflection of these cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary pathophysiological features explains the reasons the 76-year-old female patients is presenting with those symptoms.

Racial/ethnic Variables that may Impact Physiological Functioning

The female patient’s physiological well-being may be affected by several factors that are not linked to her health state. For instance, there are other factors apart from racial/ethnic state including disease severity, comorbidity, and socioeconomic factors. The health determinants of health or disparities are crucial in the prevalence of heart failure among the American population. For example, an estimated six million people suffer from heart failure in America, and is also a frequent cause of mortality and hospitalization (Nanna, 2020). Racial/ethnic differences come into play in the case of heart failure where minority races are more affected compared to the whites. Additionally, the African Americans and the Hispanics face the biggest burden of heart failure cases due to several issues related to poor access to outpatient care, and also patients from these ethnicities tend to face poorer care in hospitals (Nanna, 2020)Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper. This is because hospitals that have big numbers of black patients have bigger risks of readmission related to heart failure.

How these Processes Interact to Affect the Patient

The cardiovascular and the cardiopulmonary processes interact to bring about the patient’s issues related to heart failure. For instance, their interaction brings about the alteration stage or phase where the heart failure issues begin. This is whereby the heart gets weakened and is unable to sufficiently pump blood across the body. This makes the body fluids gather in the abdomen and legs and also the blood comes back into the lungs and heart and this causes shortness of breath (King, 2022)Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper. In the scenario, the aspect of shortness of breath is mentioned in the symptoms hence explaining the close interaction between these two processes.

The scenario of the 76-year-old female reflects the ideal nature of existing complications that comes with COPD. The issues and the symptoms mentioned including the shortness of breath, peripheral edema, weight gain, and abdominal swelling are all connected to the cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary pathophysiological processes. According to the symptoms, it is reasonable to identify that the patient may have suffered from heart failure. This is also strongly connected to racial/.the ethnic background of the patient where basic and Hispanics are at a higher chance of suffering from such complications Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper.

References

Chaudhry R, Miao JH, Rehman A. (2021). Physiology, Cardiovascular. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493197/

Schwinger R. (2021). Pathophysiology of heart failure. Cardiovascular diagnosis and therapy, 11(1), 263–276. https://doi.org/10.21037/cdt-20-302

Nanna, M. G., & Peterson, E. D. (2020). Racial Differences in Long-Term Cardiovascular Outcomes: The Need to Move From Description to Action. JACC. Cardiovascular interventions, 13(13), 1596–1598. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcin.2020.05.043

King J, Lowery DR. (2022). Physiology, Cardiac Output. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470455/ Advanced Pathophysiology Assignment Paper