Courtney B.

asked • 12/27/20

Pulmonary Diffusion Question

The diffusion of a gas that is extremely high binding capacity for hemoglobin be considered for...


Perfusion studies 

Spirometer studies 

Maximum voluntary ventilation 

Diffusion studies



Stanton D.

Come on Courtney, the gas is introduced into the patient (breathes it in), and it immediately binds strongly into the blood, to hemoglobin in the RBC's. The blood is carried out of the lungs (by the circulatory system, I would hope!!) . So after the drug binds to hemoglobin, which of those 4 choices could you use it as a tracer for (assume that it's detectable remotely, i.e., from outside the body)?
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12/27/20

Courtney B.

Perfusion studies?
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12/27/20

Stanton D.

Bingo!
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12/28/20

Stanton D.

Speaking of perfusion, I was just reading an account of a mountaineering expedition which scaled Annapurna for the first time. The leader (Maurice Herzog) sustained severe frostbite in fingers and toes. Therapy at the time consisted of arterial injections of first novocaine and subsequently acetylcholine, over several days, to attempt to reperfuse the frozen tissues. The doctor remarked that the blood was solidified (though not clotted) at the first several sites attempted. Therapy commenced at Camp II on the mountain and continued until eventual train travel into Tibet; the unrecovered finger and toe segments were amputated at that time (they had turned gangrenous). The point is, that although perfusion had been stopped, that the eventual amputations were greatly reduced in extent by the (excruciatingly painful) injections. The etiology of the perfusion loss matters! -- Cheers, --Mr. d.
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12/28/20

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