title: [Acute respiratory distress syndrome in the adult. Distribution of the ventilation-perfusion ratio].
abstract: Hypoxemia in the acute respiratory distress syndrome may be due to a variety of causes: trùe pulmonary shunt, decreased ventilation/perfusion ratios, impaired diffusion and/or fall of mixed venous oxygen. In order to sort out these different tension mechanisms, 18 patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome were explored by the inert gas method. In 6 of them hypoxemia was due to a true shunt (35 +/- 10%). The remaining 12 patients also had a true shunt (26.5 +/- 9.5%), but 4.5% of the cardiac output was distributed to areas with a ventilation/perfusion ratio between 0.1 and 0.005. Thus, in these 18 patients with acute respiratory distress, hypoxemia could be explained essentially by a true shunt.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002302:Cardiac Output; D006801:Humans; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000209:etiology; D005741:Noble Gases; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011652:Pulmonary Circulation; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000150:complications; D012128:Respiratory Distress Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014680:Veins; D014692:Ventilation-Perfusion Ratio
chemical_list: D005741:Noble Gases; D010100:Oxygen
vernacular_title: Syndrome de détresse respiratoire aiguë de l'adulte. Distribution des rapports ventilation/perfusion.