Collapse of alveoli within the lung, rather than air in the pleural space, is called atelectasis and often follows surgery when patients take shallow breaths.
Missing Word
atelectasis
Atelectasis is the collapse of alveoli so that part of the lung holds no air. Unventilated alveoli cannot take part in gas exchange, which is why deep breathing and early movement are encouraged after surgery.
Category: Airway and Oxygen Care
Question 2
The carina, the ridge where the trachea divides into the main bronchi, is very sensitive and sets off forceful coughing when stimulated.
Missing Word
carina
The carina contains nervous tissue that detects foreign material and sets off a strong cough. Touching it with a suction catheter causes coughing, which is one reason suction depth is controlled.
Category: Airway and Oxygen Care
Question 3
A spare tracheostomy tube and its obturator, the rounded guide placed inside the tube to ease reinsertion, are kept at the bedside.
Missing Word
obturator
The obturator fills the tube's opening and gives it a smooth tip so the tube can be inserted with less trauma. If the tube comes out, having the obturator and a spare tube at hand allows quick reinsertion.
Category: Airway and Oxygen Care
Question 4
A blood level of procalcitonin, which rises sharply in bacterial infection but stays low in most viral infections, can help the provider decide whether a patient with pneumonia needs antibiotics.
Missing Word
procalcitonin
Procalcitonin is a blood marker that climbs in bacterial infection, while viral infections keep it low. Read along with the chest x-ray, sputum cultures and white cell count, it helps separate bacterial from viral pneumonia and guides antibiotic use.
Category: Pneumonia and Tuberculosis
Question 5
Long-standing low blood oxygen in cystic fibrosis or bronchiectasis can widen the fingertips and flatten the angle where the nail meets the skin, a later finding called clubbing.
Missing Word
clubbing
Clubbing develops slowly over months to years of chronic hypoxemia, so it points to long-standing disease rather than an acute change. The nurse documents it as part of the respiratory assessment along with chest shape, skin color and oxygen saturation.
Category: Cystic Fibrosis and Exposures
Question 6
In latent tuberculosis, immune cells wall off the bacteria inside a granuloma, a small nodule that keeps them from spreading even though some stay alive.
Missing Word
granuloma
A granuloma is a cluster of immune cells that contains the infection, which is why a person with latent TB has no symptoms and cannot spread it. If immunity weakens, the containment can fail and the infection can become active.
Category: Pneumonia and Tuberculosis
Question 7
A chest tube is placed through the chest wall into the pleural space in a procedure called a thoracostomy.
Missing Word
thoracostomy
A thoracostomy creates an opening in the chest wall so a tube can drain air or fluid from the pleural space. It is used when a pneumothorax is large, symptomatic, or not improving with aspiration.
Category: Pneumothorax and Chest Tubes
Question 8
After a stab wound to the chest, a patient has diminished breath sounds on that side, and the new chest tube drains a large amount of bright red blood, findings of a hemothorax.
Missing Word
hemothorax
A hemothorax is bleeding into the pleural space, which compresses the lung as air does in a pneumothorax. The nurse monitors chest tube output closely, because heavy or continuing bloody drainage with falling blood pressure signals ongoing bleeding that may need surgery.
Category: Pneumothorax and Chest Tubes
Question 9
A procedure that seals the pleural layers together to keep a pneumothorax from coming back is called pleurodesis.
Missing Word
pleurodesis
Pleurodesis uses mechanical or chemical irritation to make the pleural layers stick together so air can no longer collect between them. It is considered for recurrent or bilateral pneumothorax.
Category: Pneumothorax and Chest Tubes
Question 10
Pus that collects in the pleural space, a possible complication of pneumonia, is called an empyema.
Missing Word
empyema
An empyema is an infected collection in the pleural space. It usually needs drainage along with antibiotics, and the nurse watches for persistent fever and worsening breathing.
Category: Pneumonia and Tuberculosis
Question 11
A person who has no symptoms but has inherited a cystic fibrosis gene mutation from only a single parent is a carrier and can pass the mutation to children.
Missing Word
carrier
Cystic fibrosis is recessive, so the disease appears only when a person inherits a mutated gene from both parents. A carrier has the mutation from just a single parent, has no disease, and can pass it on, which is why family history and genetic counseling matter.
Category: Cystic Fibrosis and Exposures
Question 12
Asbestos exposure can cause mesothelioma, a cancer of the pleura that may appear decades after the exposure.
Missing Word
mesothelioma
Mesothelioma is a cancer of the lining of the lung that is strongly linked to asbestos. Because damage can be silent for years, the nurse asks about past jobs and exposures.
Category: Cystic Fibrosis and Exposures
Question 13
Lung disease caused by inhaling mineral dusts such as coal dust, which scars the lung tissue, is grouped under the term pneumoconiosis.
Missing Word
pneumoconiosis
Pneumoconiosis includes black lung disease from coal dust. The scarring is permanent, so care focuses on preventing further exposure, oxygen, bronchodilators and pulmonary rehabilitation.
Category: Cystic Fibrosis and Exposures
Question 14
Inhaling fungal spores from soil, especially soil enriched with bird or bat droppings, can cause the lung infection histoplasmosis.
Missing Word
histoplasmosis
Histoplasmosis is a fungal lung infection acquired from spores in contaminated soil. Most cases are mild and clear on their own, while severe or disseminated infection is treated with antifungal therapy.
Category: Cystic Fibrosis and Exposures
Question 15
In allergic asthma, a complete blood count may show a high level of eosinophils, the white blood cells that also rise with parasitic infections.
Missing Word
eosinophils
Eosinophils drive much of the late-phase airway inflammation in allergic asthma. An elevated count supports the diagnosis but does not confirm it, since pulmonary function testing remains the key test.
Category: Asthma and Bronchiectasis