A 65-year-old patient with a history of hypertension presents to the emergency department conscious, diaphoretic, and complaining of chest pain. What should the respiratory therapist do first?

A patient receiving mechanical ventilation has an SpO₂ of 86% and P/F ratio of 150. CXR reveals diffuse bilateral ground-glass opacities. What severity of ARDS is present?

A patient receiving noninvasive ventilation has the following settings: IPAP 12 cmH₂O, EPAP 5 cmH₂O, rate 10/min. Recent ABG results are: pH 7.30, PaCO₂ 55 mmHg, PaO₂ 68 mmHg, HCO₃⁻ 28 mEq/L, BE +3. Which adjustment should the respiratory therapist recommend?

A patient needs to be transported to CT, and a respiratory therapist obtains an oxygen E tank with 1300 psi. The patient is on oxygen via a venturi mask at 10 LPM. How long will the tank last?

Airway resistance (Raw) of 2.4 cmH2O/L/sec is measured for a patient receiving mechanical ventilation. The respiratory therapist should suspect that the patient may have

Which of the following conditions would not cause the high-pressure alarm to activate on a volume-controlled ventilator?

A 68-kg postoperative patient is receiving SIMV volume-control ventilation with the following settings: VT 550 mL, rate 10/min, PEEP 8 cmH₂O, and FiO₂ 0.40. He is awake and appears anxious. The total respiratory rate is 30/min, peak inspiratory pressure is 36 cmH₂O, and minute ventilation is 9.0 L/min. Arterial blood gases are: pH 7.37, PaCO₂ 44 mmHg, PaO₂ 92 mmHg, HCO₃⁻ 25 mEq/L. Which action should the respiratory therapist take?

A trauma patient is orally intubated in the emergency department and is being manually ventilated with a self-inflating resuscitation bag. During ventilation, the respiratory therapist notes minimal chest rise, very faint breath sounds, and a noticeable air leak from around the patient’s mouth. A chest radiograph confirms that the endotracheal tube is positioned correctly. Which issue is most likely causing this problem?

A patient is on a ventilator with a rate of 15 breaths per minute and an inspiratory time of 1 second. What is the total cycle time for each breath?

Which of the following would decrease PaCO2 when ventilating a patient using intermittent mandatory ventilation with pressure support?