Pathophysiology and Pharmacology: Pneumonia

Running Head: PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY: PNEUMONIA
PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY: PNEUMONIA
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY: PNEUMONIA1
Detailed explanation of the pathophysiology in relation to the primary
illness/disease of the patient in the scenario:
Pneumonia is considered as one of the infection where the air sacs are found to be
inflamed in one or both of the lungs. The air sacs are observed to be filled with fluid or pus
(purulent material), which becomes the reason of coughs with pus or phlegm. The symptoms are
followed by rise in the body temperature accompanied by chills along with facing difficulties in
breathing. As per the case study, Mr. Roger Wilson, a 32-year-old man was observed to
complain regarding feeling shortness of breath, headaches followed by productive cough with
phlegm over the past few weeks before being admitted to the emergency department with
bilateral pneumonia. Mr. Wilson also had a history of mild asthma and usually whenever he felt
worse while doing exercise, took salbutamol (ventolin) (Sellers, 2017) to get symptomatic relief.
On his visit to the general practitioner, he was diagnosed with a respiratory tract infection and
was prescribed with roxithromycin (Rulide) 150 mg that was needed to be taken twice a day.
Post taking the medicine, Mr. Wilson was found reporting back to the general practitioner stating
about worsening his condition. On his second visit, Mr. Wilson was sent for a chest x-ray
(Torrealba et al, 2018), which confirmed the diagnosis to be bilateral pneumonia, following
which he was immediately administered to the emergency department in the hospital to undergo
further treatment. The diagnosis confirmed that Mr. Wilson was detected with bilateral
pneumonia, where the both the lungs of the patient gets affected and the condition is also coined
as the term double pneumonia. Here in the case study it has been mentioned, that Mr. Wilson and
his partner at the gym, Mathew were trying to rebuild a warehouse into gym and since then they
had been developing flu like syndromes. This can be considered as one of the major symptoms,
which indicated of Mr. Wilson developing bilateral pneumonia. They are found to be mainly

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY: PNEUMONIA2
caused by some types of streptococcal bacterial infections or respiratory syncytical virus (RSV).
Hike in body temperature accompanied by chills are another set of symptoms that helps in
determining the condition. Mr. Wilson was also observed to cough and produce mucus or
phlegm along with it. On being admitted to the ED, he complained of having chest pain as well
due to coughing, which was rated 2 out of 10 on the numerical scale of pain. The
pathophysiology of bilateral pneumonia can be described as when a bacteria, fungus or virus
causes the tiny sacs of the lungs, referred to as alveoli become inflamed. They are further
observed to be filled with pus, phlegm or mucus leading to the rise of a set of symptoms and
mainly causes shortness of breath. Before being administered into the emergency department,
Mr. Wilson was administered with roxithromycin, which are mainly used to treat respiratory
tract infections. However, post Mr. Wilson’s admission to the emergency department; he was
administered with IV Benzylpenicillin and Doxycycline (Ha et al, 2018) along with a regular
nebulization of salbutamol (ventolin). IV Benzylpenicillin (Kwong, Agweyu, English & Bejon,
2015) is mainly used to treat a number of bacterial infections and studies show that they are
found to be effective in case of pneumonia and strep throat. Doxycycline (Ha et al, 2018) is also
observed to be incorporated in the medicine chart of Mr. Wilson. Benzylpenicillin is considered
as one of he narrow pectrum antibiotic drug that are used to treat infections caused by bacteria.
The natural penicillin is observed to administered intravenously or via intramuscularly. Post
administration, the drug interferes and synthesizes the bacterial cell wall peptidoglycan. This acts
and forbids the biosynthesis of the cell wall peptidoglycan. Moreover, the biosynthesis leads to
rendering the cell wall and make them osmotically unstable. In term of pharmacodynamics,
Doxycycline helps in stopping the protein synthesis of the susceptible organisms. The synthesis
of protein is one of the important step that o the replication of genetic material that are needed by