[Education of respiratory physiology in 2nd-year medicine: current challenges].

The author describes some of the challenges which face present day teaching in respiratory physiology. These are 1. poor integration with basic science, 2.

Oxygen supply and uptake in tissue models with unequal distribution of blood flow and shunt.

The effects of unequal distribution of blood flow on O2 uptake are studied on a model composed of 3 tissues compartments with blood flow/O2 requirement ratios in the relation 9:3:1 (unequal blood flow model), a model with 33% shunt blood flow (shunt model), and a single compartment model without shunt (reference model). Diffusion limitation is assumed to be absent. Total blood flow (Q), arterial O2 content (CaO2) and O2 requirement of tissue are varied singly, and the resulting (mixed) venous O2 content (CvO2) and O2 uptake are calculated.

The effect of carbon monoxide on respiration.

In this review the effects of carbon monoxide on tissular oxygenation, at doses which are compatible with life, are considered. In a first section the relative CO-O2 affinity (M*) of various O2 carrying proteins is compared; M* is about 220 for hemoglobin, 20-25 for myoglobin and close to unity for cytochrome oxidases. Thus most of the acute CO toxicity should not be considered as due to malfunction of the intracellular respiratory chain.

Muscle maximal O2 uptake at constant O2 delivery with and without CO in the blood.

In the present study we investigated the effects of carboxyhemoglobinemia (HbCO) on muscle maximal O2 uptake (VO2max) during hypoxia. O2 uptake (VO2) was measured in isolated in situ canine gastrocnemius (n = 12) working maximally (isometric twitch contractions at 5 Hz for 3 min). The muscles were pump perfused at identical blood flow, arterial PO2 (PaO2) and total hemoglobin concentration [( Hb]) with blood containing either 1% (control) or 30% HbCO.