Pulmonary Airflow Lab Report

In this experiment, several physiological parameters were observed in three patients before, during, and after moderate exercise. One of these parameters was the pulmonary airflow, which was recorded utilizing an Airflow Transducer. This device measures airflow using slight pressure differences created by the resistance of a screen inside the device. Pulmonary airflow is the rate of movement into and out of the lungs, and is directly proportional to the pressure difference of the intrapulmonary pressure and the atmospheric pressure, and inversely proportional to the resistance of the lungs (elasticity/diameter of air pathways).1 The BIOPAC program then can convert the airflow to volume of air moved. Pulmonary ventilation is the movement of air in and out of the lungs. A more specific measurement of pulmonary airflow is the minute respiratory volume, which measures how much air is moved into and out of the lungs in one minute (tidal volume*breaths per minute).2 Since both deal with a volume moved per time, they are synonymous, although the parameter is referred to as airflow in this report.15E
Pulmonary airflow tends to increase both during and immediately after
The arterioles in the skeletal muscles dilate, which increases blood flow to the muscles and leads to an overall drop in peripheral resistance. At the same time there is vasoconstriction in the vessels supplying blood to the abdominal organs and kidneys. This makes sense: if an individual was running from an attacking lion, digestion wouldn’t be a high priority while the muscles involved in escape would be. Another cardiovascular response to exercise is an increase in blood pressure, particularly systolic pressure: this is a result of the increase in the volume of blood being pumped from the heart.3 Finally there is the longer-term response to continuing to exercise, which is remodeling of the