title: The blood-gas partition coefficient of xenon may be lower than generally accepted.
abstract: The blood-gas partition coefficients of xenon, reported more than 25 yr ago in the literature, vary considerably from 0.13 to 0.20. Consequently, we have determined this variable by directly injecting xenon-saturated blood into a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. This technique yielded a blood-gas partition coefficient for xenon of 0.115 (95% confidence interval 0.107-0.123). The solubility in water measured identically was 0.096, consistent with the reported value of 0.085. These data and a detailed review of the literature strongly suggest that the blood-gas partition coefficient of xenon may be lower than the generally accepted value of 0.14.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaesthesia, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Ichihara Hospital, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suwa
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Uezono
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ichinose
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uchiyama
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morita
mesh_terms: D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation / Q000097:blood*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D012995:Solubility; D014978:Xenon / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D018685:Anesthetics, Inhalation; D014978:Xenon