Transport and Respiration

What is the respiratory rate:

Respiratory rate is also called the breathing rate which means the number of breaths that an individual takes in one minute during the time while he or she is at rest (Azimi et al. 2017). The normal breathing rate in an adult person is 12-20 breaths per minute. During exercise the breathing rate increases due to the increased heart rate.

Explanation of the data in the given table:

From the table, it is seen that the children aged 6-12 years have a respiratory rate of 18-30 breaths per minute. Generally, children have faster respiratory rates than adults (Peate, 2018). Faster breathing in children is called periodic breathing. Children of 6-12 years are called the school-aged children who generally take 18-30 breaths in one minute.

On the other hand, in the case of people within the age group 19-40 years the breathing rate is lower than infants and children (Gordon and Reed, 2020). The table shows that the breathing rate in 19-40 years age-group people is 12-20 breaths/minute. This means people of the age group 19-40 years generally take 12-20 breaths in one minute when they are rest (Azimi et al. 2017).

The table shows that older people belonging to the age group 65-80 years generally have a breathing rate of 12-28. This means that they take 12-28 breaths in one minute at a resting position.

Pressure changes in the thorax during breathing:

What is breathing or pulmonary ventilation:

Breathing is the process through which the air from the external environment enters into the lung and after the gaseous exchange, the air from the lungs is exhaled into the environment (Longmore et al. 2019). the purpose of breathing is to supply oxygen to the lungs through which the oxygen is transported to all the body parts by blood flow and the elimination of carbon dioxides from the alveoli into the outside environment. Breathing is also called pulmonary ventilation which is performed in two phases inhalation and exhalation (Cupello et al. 2017) The process of air enters into the lung from the external environment is known as the inhalation and the process of eliminating air from alveoli to the outside environment is called as the exhalation. Intercostal muscles and diaphragm are involved in this process of pulmonary ventilation, which causes the changes in the thoracic pressure by their contraction and expansion.

11 pairs of intercostal muscles are located in the space between the ribs. There are two types of intercostal muscles such as external and internal intercostal muscles (Longmore et al. 2019). These muscles play major roles in expanding and compressing the size of the thoracic cavity thereby causing the air to enter into and exits from the lungs.

Pressure changes of thoracic cavity during inhalation:

Inhalation or inspiration takes place during there is an increase in the volume of the thoracic cavity (Zaccone et al. 2018). In this process first, there is a contraction of the external intercostal muscle and relaxation of the internal intercostal muscle.

The contraction of the external intercostal muscle pushes the ribs towards an upward direction thereby increasing the size of the thoracic cavity (Bains et al. 2020).

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Further enlargement of the thoracic cavity occurs due to the contraction of the diaphragm that leads to an increase in the size of the thoracic cavity.

Due to the enhancement of the thoracic cavity, the expansion of the lungs occurs simultaneously. with this expansion of the lungs, the air pressure inside the lungs reduces.

Due to the reduction of air pressure insides lung alveoli, the air from outside enters into the lungs to equalise the entire pressure

Pressure changes of thoracic cavity during exhalation:

Exhalation or expiration is the process in which air exits from the lungs to the outside environment (Gordon and Reed, 2020).

At first, the internal intercostal muscle contracts that push the ribs towards the inward direction thereby lowering the size of the thoracic cavity

The diaphragm is expanded and is pushed toward the upward direction, which causes a further reduction of the size of the thoracic cavity (Zaccone et al. 2018).

The reduction of the size of the thoracic cavity causes compression of the lungs. As a result, the air pressure inside the lung alveoli increases than the air pressure outside the lungs. Therefore, the air from the lung alveoli comes out and is exhaled into the external environment.

Reference list:

Azimi, H., Gilakjani, S.S., Bouchard, M., Bennett, S., Goubran, R.A. and Knoefel, F., 2017, May. Breathing signal combining for respiration rate estimation in smart beds. In 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Medical Measurements and Applications (MeMeA) (pp. 303-307). IEEE.

Bains, K.N.S., Kashyap, S. and Lappin, S.L., 2020. Anatomy, Thorax, Diaphragm. StatPearls [Internet].

Cupello, C., Meunier, F.J., Herbin, M., Clément, G. and Brito, P.M., 2017. Lung anatomy and histology of the extant coelacanth shed light on the loss of air-breathing during deep-water adaptation in actinistians. Royal Society open science, 4(3), p.161030.

Gordon, K.E. and Reed, O., 2020. The role of the pelvic floor in respiration: a multidisciplinary literature review. Journal of Voice, 34(2), pp.243-249.

Longmore, S.K., Lui, G.Y., Naik, G., Breen, P.P., Jalaludin, B. and Gargiulo, G.D., 2019. A comparison of reflective photoplethysmography for detection of heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and respiration rate at various anatomical locations. Sensors, 19(8), p.1874.

Peate, I., 2018. Anatomy and physiology, 10. The respiratory system. British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, 12(4), pp.178-181.

Zaccone, G., Lauriano, E.R., Capillo, G. and Kuciel, M., 2018. Air-breathing in fish: Air-breathing organs and control of respiration: Nerves and neurotransmitters in the air-breathing organs and the skin. Acta histochemica, 120(7), pp.630-641.