Keywords

Lungs, Diseases, Tobacco, Physiological effect

Abstract

Data were extracted from medical records of 202 former patients of a well established central Florida general hospital. Records were selected so as to include an equal number of disease categories dispersed equally over the two years. One hundred records were dated 1973 and 102 were dated 1976. Emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and asthma had been diagnosed in 67, 67, and 68 of the cases respectively. The age, sex, race, smoking habits, and occupations of the patients were recorded and crosstabulated with the diagnostic tests and subsequent treatment ordered by the various physicians. Most of the emphysematous patients were males over 50, the asthmatics were females under 30, and the bronchitics were older than 50 with an even sex distribution. Most of the emphysematous and bronchitic patients had smoked over 25 years, while only 13% of the asthmatics smoked. A majority of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients complained of shortness of breath, were hospitalized ten days or less, treated four times a day with intermittent positive pressure breathing had little or no pulmonary rehabilitation, and survived. Respiratory care appeared to improve over the three-year period as judged by an increase in the frequency of blood gas monitoring and a reduction in the required ventilator times with improved techniques.

Graduation Date

1978

Advisor

Washington, David W.

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Natural Sciences

Degree Program

Biology

Format

PDF

Pages

50 p.

Language

English

Rights

Written permission granted by copyright holder to the University of Central Florida Libraries to digitize and distribute for nonprofit, educational purposes.

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Identifier

DP0003461

Subjects

Lungs -- Diseases, Tobacco -- Physiological effect

Contributor (Linked data)

David W. Washington (Q60030937)

Collection (Linked data)

Retrospective Theses and Dissertations

Accessibility Status

Searchable text

Included in

Biology Commons

Share

COinS