New advances in pulmonary gas exchange.
Unevenness of ventilation and blood flow within the lung is of great clinical importance because this mechanism is the commonest cause of hypoxemia and respiratory failure. In spite of this, little is known about the distribution of ventilation-perfusion ratios in disease. A new technic for determining these distributions is described and examples are given. An important finding is instability of areas with low ventilation-perfusion ratios during oxygen breathing.
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D006801:Humans; D008168:Lung / Q000502:physiology; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology; D008722:Methods; D010102:Oxygen Inhalation Therapy; D011175:Positive-Pressure Respiration; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio / Q000379:methods