A new approach to the dynamics of oxygen capture by the human lung

Oxygen capture in the lung results from the intimate dynamic interaction between the space- and time-dependent oxygen partial pressure that results from convection-diffusion and oxygen extraction from the alveolar gas and the space and time dependence of oxygen trapping by the red blood cells flowing in the capillaries. The complexity of the problem can, however, be reduced due to the fact that the systems obey different time scales: seconds for the gas phase transport and tenths of seconds for oxygen trapping by blood. This results first from a dynamical study of gas transport in a moving acinus and second from a new theory of dynamic oxygen trapping in the capillaries. The global solution can be found only through a self-consistent iterative approach linking the two systems. This has been accomplished and used to quantify oxygen capture in various situations: at rest, during exercise, ventilation-perfusion mismatching, high altitude and pulmonary edema.