FLOW OF AIR ANATOMICALLY AND PHYSIOLOGICALLY THROUGH RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

FLOW OF AIR ANATOMICALLY AND PHYSIOLOGICALLY THROUGH RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

NASAL PART

-          It starts from the nose.

-          The air always come in through nostrils also known as nares.

-          Nose actually contains 2 cavities (nasal cavities) separated by an elastic cartilage called nasal septum.

-          The roof for nasal cavities is formed of 4 bones: nasal bone, ethmoid, sphenoid and frontal bone.

-          The inferior/base region also known as the floor of the nasal cavity is palate and mostly the hard palate while the soft palate is at the edge and form a projection or a hanging ball called ovula.

-          Each nasal cavity can be distributed into two side of wall which are medial internal nasal wall and lateral internal nasal wall.

-          The interiorly medial wall is mainly nothing except just smooth surface and may represent the septal cartilage or nasal septum.

-          The internally lateral nasal wall consists of three projections called chonchae and divided into superior concha, middle choncha and inferior choncha.

-          Each of nasal cavities is lined by mucus membranes that rich in blood vessel and glands.

-          The air will be passing through these chonchae and make an air turbulence that takes a temporary time before it goes into the nasopharynx and so on for certain function:

a)      With blood capillaries, for respiration taking place (minor exchanges of gases), occurrence of thermal exchanges for maintaining and normalising (equalising) the temperature of inhaled air to the body temperature.

b)      With mucus secreted by glands for humidification and trapping some bacteria.

c)       With nasal hair that filters the air from the entering of big foreign substances into the nasal cavity thus acts as the first immune barrier layer.

d)      With olfactory bulb that act as smell receptor due to the content of the air. It is for the sense of smell.

PHARYNX PART

-          Then followed by pharynx.

-          The pharynx is divided into three parts based on its location:

a)      Nasopharynx, the part of pharynx where it can be found at base of the nose(end of nasal cavity). In this region, there is a collection of lymphoid tissue also known as tonsil namely as pharyngeal tonsil.

b)      Oropharynx, the part of pharynx where it is located at behind the oral cavity (cavity/space inside the mouth). There two tonsils that can be found in oropharynx; lingual tonsil and palatine tonsil.

c)       Laryngopharynx, the part of pharynx that surely near to larynx region.

LARYNX

-          Then continued with larynx which is the opening of trachea.

-          The larynx consist of vocal cord or true vestibular muscle that has two function:

a)      Vocal/sound production also known as phonation. The vestibular muscle(vocal fold/cord) causes the air passing through to vibrate thus produce the sound. The larynx is also known as voice box.

b)      Allowing the air to pass through into trachea. The vestibular muscle contract and relax but under involuntary movement to close or open the air-way passage. The closing phase is partial but not total as the epiglottis do in preventing the food from entering the trachea.

TRACHEAL PART

-          The trachea is a respiratory tract that connect from larynx to the primary bronchi

-          The trachea is mainly a tract that be surrounded by cartilage that prevent the collapse of its structure.

-          At the end of trachea, it is the primary bronchi whereby the trachea is bifurcated, branching itself into two tubes; left and right bronchi. The primary bronchi are differed from other secondary and tertiary bronchi since this primary one is located outside the lungs in thorax cavity. The right bronchus is shorter, wider and in a line with the trachea. The shortness of right trachea is reasonable since the liver position is on right position also that pushed mostly the right regional organ inside the body upwardly. In contrast to the left bronchus, it is obliquely longer and narrower since there is mostly part of the heart located.

-          Then followed by secondary and tertiary and finally the respiratory sac called alveoli.

PULMONARY CIRCULATION

-          The singular alveolus contains the air sac surrounded with moist surface in ensuring the efficiency of gaseous exchanges between pulmonary capillaries and alveolar sac.

-          The gaseous exchanges are the process of exchanges of mainly oxygen into blood capillaries and carbon dioxide out to the lungs. This generally known as pulmonary respiration, a respiration that occurs inside the lungs. Besides that, the movement of oxygen and carbon dioxide in this pulmonary respiration is under partial pressure. For instances, the higher partial pressure of oxygen in alveolar sac move into pulmonary capillaries with lower partial pressure of oxygen.

RESPIRATORY CARTILLAGES

-          In this respiratory system, there are 9 cartilages can be found. The three of cartilages are the prominent ones which means that it exist in one site only compared to the others. The other 6 cartilages are found in both right and left side.

-          The three prominent one cartilages are:

a)      Thyroid cartilage, also known as Adam’s apple.

b)      Cricoid cartilage.

c)       Epiglottis.

The others are cuneiform, corniculate and arytenoid cartilages. Overall the others are six cartilages since each of it has 2 side or is formed of a pair( left and right).