title: Evaluation of the resistance of membrane and erythrocytes to oxygen transport in pulmonary capillaries.
abstract: The conductance of the diffusion pathway for oxygen in pulmonary capillaries is usually described in terms of two lumped components; the membrane and erythrocyte diffusing capacities. In this study the relative importance of these two components was investigated theoretically over a wide range of alveolar oxygen partial pressures. It was found that the membrane diffusing capacity is largely independent of the alveolar oxygen partial pressure and the erythrocyte diffusing capacity increases steeply with a decrease in alveolar oxygen partial pressure. The ratio of the resistance of the membrane to that of the erythrocytes to oxygen transport is a strong function of the alveolar oxygen partial pressure [1.5 (PAO2 = 30 mmHg); 1.0 (PAO2 = 100 mmHg); 0.5 (PAO2 = 700 mmHg)].
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA. patelss@che.udel.edu
authors.forename: Shwetal
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D002196:Capillaries; D002200:Capillary Resistance / Q000502:physiology*; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology*; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000502:physiology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D008433:Mathematics; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood / Q000502:physiology*; D010313:Partial Pressure; D011650:Pulmonary Alveoli / Q000502:physiology; D011653:Pulmonary Diffusing Capacity / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen