In some plants such as in pits of apricots, cyanide can be found as glycosides can synthesize cyanide. Smoking cigarettes is a major avenue of exposure. Pulmonary Aspiration Syndromes
Deglutition is the main cause for minute food and fluid to get aspirated into the lungs. Impaired consciousness and esophageal disorders can cause deglutition. Acute Aspiration of Gastric Content (Mendelson Syndrome): pulmonary response to aspirated content depend on the quantity and constituent of aspirated gastric content. Chemical pneumonitis is severe if aspirated content is acidic and aspirated gastric acid – pH less than 2.5 – can inflame bronchial epithelium and cause bronchiolitis, hemorrhagen, and pulmonary edema.Chronic Aspiration of Gastric Contents: disorders of the larynx and the esophagus are major causes of chronic aspiration of gastric content – achalasia, esophageal stricture, systemic sclerosis (scleroderma), esophageal carcinoma, esophagitis, and gastro-esophageal reflux. Pulmonary aspiration can result when the lower intestinal sphincter relax and spill out gastric content into the esophagus.Smoking, consuming alcohol or caffeine, and the drug theophylline used in asthma patients are known to cause lower intestinal sphincter relaxation. Gastro-esophageal reflux and chronic aspiration are associated with few pulmonary disorders: asthma, chronic cough, bronchiectasis, and pulmonary fibrosis.Difficulty swallowing, ageing, dental problems impeding proper chewing, consuming alcohol, and taking sedatives cause café coronary, obstruction of the upper airways by food particles.Retaining an Aspirated Foreign Body: poor clearance of aspirated material out of the tracheobronchial tree can result in acute and chronic conditions including atelectasis, post obstructive hyperinflation, acute and recurrent pneumonia, bronchiectasis, and lung abscesses.
Dehydration contributes to morbidity in the elderly population, especially during conditions that promote insensible free water losses, such as hot weather. A Cochrane review on this subject defined water-loss dehydration as "people with serum osmolality of 295 mOsm/kg or more" and found that the main symptom in the elderly (people aged over 65) was fatigue. Cause
Risk factors for dehydration include but are not limited to: exerting oneself in hot and humid weather, habitation at high altitudes, endurance athletics, elderly adults, infants, children and people living with chronic illnesses.Dehydration can also come as a side effect from many different types of drugs and medications.In the elderly, blunted response to thirst or inadequate ability to access free water in the face of excess free water losses (especially hyperglycemia related) seem to be the main causes of dehydration. Excess free water or hypotonic water can leave the body in two ways – sensible loss such as osmotic diuresis, sweating, vomiting and diarrhea, and insensible water loss, occurring mainly through the skin and respiratory tract. In humans, dehydration can be caused by a wide range of diseases and states that impair water homeostasis in the body. These occur primarily through either impaired thirst/water access or sodium excess. Diagnosis
Definition
Dehydration occurs when water intake does not replace free water lost due to normal physiologic processes, including breathing, urination, perspiration, or other causes, including diarrhea, and vomiting.