Respiratory System Membranes
The respiratory system has several membranes which cover various aspects of the organs and cavities which are there to both lubricate and allow expansion to occur without causing pain or discomfort. The lungs as well all know inflate and deflate. Well have you ever wondered what causes them to do this without wearing out or causing tears, punctures or worst destroying the organs themselves. Well much like hot dogs encased in a skin, membranes cover each organ separately and then the cavity itself has a lining or membrane to coat and protect itself. As a reminder from my 1st article you have the visceral and parietal membranes. The visceral cover the organs and the pariental cover the cavities.
So you could say by definition that the visceral membrane covers the lungs and the parietal membrane covers the thoracic cavity, but let us not forget the intra pleural membrane which is the space that lies between the two pleural membranes. If this membrane gets inflamed it causes the pathology called pleurisy which for doctors is very hard to diagnosis correctly. It has the same symptoms as various other pathologies in the human body.
