title: The lifetimes of small arterial gas emboli, and their possible connection to Inner Ear Decompression Sickness.
abstract: We solved both the Diffusion and Laplace equations which predicted very similar results for the problem of a dissolving small gas bubble suspended in a liquid medium. These bubbles dissolved both because of surface tension and solute concentration effects. We focused on predicting bubble lifetimes ("td"), and dissolution dynamics - radius vs time (R vs t) for these contracting bubbles. We also presented a direct comparison of the predicted results, obtained by applying either Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, to the bubble/medium interface. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct comparison that has ever been published on the application of these different boundary conditions to a moving gas/liquid boundary. We found that the results obtained by applying either Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions were very similar for small, short-lived bubbles (R0<25 μ,td<40s), but diverged considerably for larger, longer-lived bubbles. We applied our expressions to the timely problem of Inner Ear Decompression Sickness, where we found that our predictions were consistent with much of what is known about this condition.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Chemistry, The Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and The Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. Electronic address: jmsolanoalt@gmail.com.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Solano-Altamirano
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Chemistry, The Guelph-Waterloo Centre for Graduate Work in Chemistry and The Guelph-Waterloo Physics Institute, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, Canada. Electronic address: sgoldman@uoguelph.ca.
authors.forename: Saul
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goldman
mesh_terms: D003665:Decompression Sickness / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004058:Diffusion; D004617:Embolism / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D007759:Labyrinth Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013500:Surface Tension
keywords: Arterial gas embolus lifetime; Diffusion and Laplace equations; Inner Ear Decompression Sickness; Moving gas/liquid boundary; Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions; Right/left shunting