Home of the A to Z Series of Pocket Medical Books
Respiratory Quiz
1. How many mls of water are lost / hour by breathing?
- 20 mls – WHEN AT REST
- 80 mls – WHEN RUNNING
2. What is the average time a person can hold their breath?
- 22s and 2mins22s for most people
- 22mins is the longest free dive in the Guinness book of records
3. In a stillborn baby do the lungs float?
- No – because the baby has not had a chance to “take a breath”
The lung float test is 98% accurate
Normally, lungs float in autopsy the only organs to do so
4. Approximately how many viruses can cause the common cold?
- At the moment – 200 from 3 main classes: the human coronovirus, rhinoviruses & the respiratory syncitial virus
5. Some capillaries are slightly smaller than RBCs, which is important in the pathology of which disease?
- sickle cell anaemia, malaria and thalassaemia
All these diseases have a change in the deformability of the rbc cell membrane as part of their pathology
6. How many litres of air does an average person breathe in/24hrs?
- 11,0000 – the average rate of breathing at rest is between 10-20x /minute, about 26,000x/day
7. A lung measures approximately…?
- X = 25-35 cm
- y = 10-15 cm
- Z = 0.8-1.2 kg
- The R lung is heavier than the L lung
