Module 3B Flashcards
What are the 3 main determinants of oxygen supply?
- AMOUNT of oxygen that is present in the arterial blood when it leaves the lungs
- CAPACITY of the blood to transport oxygen to the cells
- EFFECTIVENESS of the pump that circulates the blood throughout the body;
- to ensure adequate cellular oxygenation, it is not sufficient to have great gas exchange and ventilation, or optimal conditions for maximizing oxygen transport—adequate cardiac output is required to move the saturated arterial blood around the body to the cells that need it
What are 3 parameters of good indication of determinants of oxygen?
- Arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2): which represents the amount of oxygen present in the arterial blood when it leaves the lungs
- Hemoglobin (Hgb): which indicates the capacity of the blood to transport oxygen to the cells
- Cardiac output (CO): which is an indicator of the effectiveness of the pump that circulates the blood throughout the body
What is oxygen demand?
- Any factors that increase or decrease the amount of oxygen the cells require to function will influence oxygen demand.
- Metabolic factors exert the strongest influence on oxygen demand and include temperature, activity level, and stress.
What are 3 metabolic factors exert the strongest influence on oxygen demand?
- temperature,
- activity level,
- stress.
What are 3 factors that influence arterial oxygen saturation?
- Concentration of oxygen in the inspired gas (FiO2)
- Ventilation: the infant’s ability to get air in and out of the lungs
- Alveolar gas exchange: the effectiveness of gas exchange at the alveolar-capillary membrane
What is ventilation? What factors influence ventilation (2)?
- is the movement of air in and out of the lungs
Factors influence ventilation:
- respiratory rate RR
- tidal volume Vt (the size of each breath)
Whats minute ventilation?
Respiratory rate x tidal volume = minute ventilation
- influenced by work of breathing
What is infants respiratory rate and tidal volume influence by?
- influenced by work of breathing.
- Work of breathing, in turn, is influenced by lung development, lung compliance, airway resistance, and respiratory muscle function.
What is work of breathing? What are 4 factors that influence work of breathing?
- How hard an infant has to work to sustain adequate ventilation will clearly influence their capacity to maintain adequate arterial oxygen saturation and oxygen supply.
Factors influence work of breathing in infants:
- lung development,
- compliance,
- airway resistance, and
- respiratory muscle function.
What are the 5 stages that lung development is divided into?
- embryonic (3–6 weeks),
- pseudoglandular (6–16 weeks),
- canalicular (16–24 weeks): lung development has progressed to the point where gas exchange may be possible
- saccular (24–40 weeks): important blood-air barrier is established
- alveolar (birth–childhood).
What is compliance in regards to work of breathing (ventilation)
- is a measure of the distensibility of a tissue
- It considers the relationship between the degree to which the tissue will stretch and the force or pressure required to make that stretch occur.
- In considering the impact of compliance on work of breathing, both compliance of the lung tissue and compliance of the thoracic cage are important.
- Infants, especially preterm infants, have less-compliant lungs and more-compliant rib cages, which can lead to difficulties with ventilation.
What is airway resistance in regards to work of breathing (ventilation)?
- effectiveness of ventilation: influenced by the ability of air to flow through the conducting airways.
- In the respiratory system, the conducting airways include all anatomical passages from the point of air entry to the respiratory bronchioles and alveoli.
- In the conducting airways, airway resistance is influenced by the diameter of the airway.
- Airway diameter decreases with lower gestational age and smaller size
What is respiratory muscle function in regards to work of breathing (ventilation)?
- There are many muscles involved in the mechanics of ventilation.
- Infants, especially preterm infants, have weak muscles and tend to tire easily.
What is alveolar gas exchange?
- exchange of gases across the alveolar-capillary membrane
- Alveolar gas exchange is influenced by several factors, including the process of diffusion of gases across the alveolar-capillary membrane
Why premature infants have difficulty with alveolar gas exchange (3)?
- due to decreased surfactant production,
- decreased surface area for gas exchange, and
- increased distance between alveoli.
What influence diffusion in alveolar gas exchange (2)?
- influenced by such factors as the thickness of the alveolar-capillary membrane
- the difference in concentration of gases on either side of the membrane
Does CO2 diffused more rapidly than O2?
- Carbon dioxide (CO2) diffuses 20 times more rapidly than oxygen [diffusion coefficient]
- This is a critical piece of information in understanding the relationship between gas exchange, oxygenation, and ventilation.
- The ready diffusibility of CO2 makes it easy for it to pass from the pulmonary capillary to the alveoli, even when diffusion is impaired by a pathological process that increases the thickness of the alveolar-capillary membrane,
What primarily determined CO2 levels?
- CO2 levels are determined primarily by ventilation NOT oxygenation
ventilation is inadequate:
- less CO2 is exhaled from the body and
- so CO2 levels increase in the alveoli.
- The increase in alveolar CO2 concentration results in a decrease in driving pressure for CO2 (that is, the difference between alveolar CO2 concentration and venous CO2 concentration).
- As a result, the movement of CO2 from the pulmonary capillary to the alveoli will decrease, allowing CO2 levels in the arterial blood (PaCO2) to rise.
- Thus, CO2 levels in the arterial blood are influenced primarily by ventilation not by diffusion.
- PaCO2 (measured in arterial blood gas analysis) is the best indicator of ventilation.
How does the difference in concentration of O2 in alveoli and in capillary support movement of O2 from alveoli to capillary?
- increase the driving pressure of oxygen whenever we administer supplemental oxygen to infants via nasal prongs or through CPAP or a mechanical ventilator.
- The movement of oxygen across the alveolar-capillary membrane is influenced by two processes: ventilation and diffusion
What does the ventilatory processes (decreased ventilation) do in regards to movement of oxygen across the alveolar-capillary membrane?
- Ventilatory processes bring oxygen into the alveoli and so to the alveolar-capillary interface
- In decreased ventilation, there is less oxygen available in the alveoli to diffuse to the capillary, driving pressure is decreased and so diffusion is reduced, and consequently oxygen levels in the arterial blood fall.
- To put it simply, if the oxygen doesn’t get to the alveolar-capillary membrane, it cannot get into the arterial blood supply.
- Thus, decreased ventilation will reduce arterial oxygen levels, even when the alveolar-capillary membrane is physiologically normal