Functional Significance of Abnormally High or Low Compliance
Low compliance indicates a stiff lung and means extra work is required to bring in a normal volume of air. This occurs as the lungs in this case become fibrotic, lose their distensibility and become stiffer.
In a highly compliant lung, as in emphysema, the elastic tissue has been damaged, usually due to their being overstretched by chronic overinflation. Patients with emphysema have a very high lung compliance due to the poor elastic recoil, they have no problem inflating the lungs but have extreme difficulty exhaling air. In this condition extra work is required to get air out of the lungs. Compliance also increases with increasing age, and during an Asthma attack (for unclear reasons).
Compliance decreases in the following cases:
- Supine position
- Laparoscopic surgical interventions
- Severe restrictive pathologies
- Chronic restrictive pathologies
- Hydrothorax
- Pneumothorax
- High standing of a diaphragm
Read more about this topic: Pulmonary Compliance
Famous quotes containing the words functional, significance, high and/or compliance:
“Stay-at-home mothers, . . . their self-esteem constantly assaulted, . . . are ever more fervently concerned that their offspring turn out better so they won’t have to stoop to say “I told you so.” Working mothers, . . . their self-esteem corroded by guilt, . . . are praying their kids turn out functional so they can stop being defensive and apologetic and instead assert “See? I did do it all.””
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“To grasp the full significance of life is the actor’s duty, to interpret it is his problem, and to express it his dedication.”
—Marlon Brando (b. 1924)
“Our domestic problems are for the most part economic. We have our enormous debt to pay, and we are paying it. We have the high cost of government to diminish, and we are diminishing it. We have a heavy burden of taxation to reduce, and we are reducing it. But while remarkable progress has been made in these directions, the work is yet far from accomplished.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“In this our talking America, we are ruined by our good nature and listening on all sides. This compliance takes away the power of being greatly useful.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)