An inflammation of the small airways (bronchioles) and alveoli. Pneumonia usually occurs after infection with a bacterium or virus, often due to a cold or flu.
Treatment necessary
Pneumonia is associated with much coughing, phlegm, high fever, breathlessness and a feeling of malaise. When your immune system is not sufficiently able to adequately fight this infection, treatment is needed.
The trachea divides into two airways (main bronchi), which ramify to smaller and smaller bronchi. The smallest airways – the bronchioles – have a diameter of about one millimeter, they end in a kind of grape bunches (called alveoli or air sacs). Every human has about 1 million alveoli that are the size of a football coverage.
The alveolar gas exchange takes place between blood and breathing air: oxygen is absorbed and carbon dioxide is issued. If your blood contains too little oxygen, your cells do their job properly. In a serious case of oxygen shortage, unpleasant complications such as coma, respiratory arrest and a cardiac arrest.
Pneumonia symptoms
In pneumonia the alveoli to fill with pus and other fluids, making the oxygen more difficult. You become short of breath and shortness of breath and your heart and lungs have to work extra hard for the oxygen in your blood to maintain. Pneumonia is associated with a number of specific symptoms:
* Many cough and abandonment of mucus, often yellow or green, sometimes with blood.
* Fever.
* Shortness of breath, rapid shallow breathing.
* Pain in the (deep) breathing.
* Overall malaise: fatigue, clammy / sweating, muscle aches, decreased appetite, headache.
* Cyanosis: blue lips and / or face and fingers (including nails).
Tags: coughing, high fever, infection, main bronchi, malaise, phlegm, Pneumonia, Risk Of Pneumonia
