Relationship of oxygen content to po2 for stabilized bubbles in the
circulation: theory.
Liew, Hugh D. Van, and Mark E. Burkard.
Department of Physiology, University at Buffalo, State University
of New York, Buffalo, NY, 14214-3078
APStracts 3:0109A, 1996.
Stabilized bubbles can pass through capillary beds, recirculate for a
few minutes or hours, and carry O2 from the lungs to the tissues.
Here we develop the theory for the O2 content-PO2 relationship of
bubbles and the alterations of the bubbles that are coupled to the O2
transport. We provide examples for bubbles stabilized by a slowly
-permeating gas; bubbles stabilized by mechanical structures may
behave similarly. Because there are two mechanisms for O2 unloading
(lowering of PO2 and shrinkage), the bubbles release a large fraction
of their O2 content at high PO2; when pure O2 is breathed, half the
content of a 3 [mu]m-radius bubble is released before PO2 falls to
500 mm Hg. The possibility that stabilized bubbles could become a
clinical tool for therapeutic transport of O2 raises many issues to
be investigated. The high unloading PO2 offers opportunities for
delivering O2 by diffusion to poorly perfused regions of the tissue,
but also presents a hazard of oxygen toxicity to perfused tissue.
Received 23 February 1995; accepted in final form 9 February
1996.
APS Manuscript Number A213-5.
Article publication pending Journal of Applied Physiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1996 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 13 March 96