Does any one know what slightly hyperexpanded lungs mean?!


Question: i had an x ray done at the hospital on my stomach and it said i have hyper expanded lungs and my docs always so busy I have not been able to ask what it means....


Answers: i had an x ray done at the hospital on my stomach and it said i have hyper expanded lungs and my docs always so busy I have not been able to ask what it means....

By itself, it just means you hold a very large amount of air in your lungs. This may or may not be a problem. It becomes a problem if you can only exhale a small percentage of the air volume in each breath. When this occurs, you can't exchange oxygen and CO2 fast enough to keep your blood gases normal. Usually when this is found in an x-ray, tests are run to examine arterial blood gases and pulmonary function.

An arrhythmia does not cause a hyperexpanded lung, but there is one type of arrhythmia (respiratory sinus arrhythmia) that increases the efficiency of gas exchange. So, its possible that the arrhythmia could be caused by the lung condition, but its more likely a coincidence.

You were probably taking a deep breath; that's all it means at your age.

Hyper expanded lungs are lungs that are overinflated with air. In Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), air is trapped in the lungs. Over time more and more air is stuck. This air is stale and stagnant. Those with COPD will have a barreled looking chest after years of air trapping.

The more "old" trapped air in the lungs, the less "good" air can get in. The less good air you get in the lungs, the less oxygen can get into the blood and the less carbon dioxide can get out of the lungs.

There are exercises that can help those with trapped air get it out. Pulmonary rehab is a good program for that.

This could also mean reative airway disease (asthma) people with RAD sometimes will have hyperexpanded lungs which shows up on an Xray which means you have trapped air in your lungs.





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