Factors determining temporal pattern of isobaric supersaturation

It is possible to produce a transient supersaturation or undersaturation in tissues and blood by sequentially breathing gases with different equilibration rates. If the ambient gas pressure is sufficiently high, the induced supersaturation can produce vascular bubbles. By means of the classical perfusion-dependent model of inert gas elimination, which assumes that the effects of diffusion are minimal, the magnitude of the total inert gas pressure can be predicted. If, however, the effects of diffusion cannot be ignored, the supersaturation could be substantially larger. This paper estimates the effects of diffusion in a Krogh cylinder on the supersaturation produced by suddenly changing the inert gas partial pressure in the blood. The results of these estimates indicate that diffusion plays a role in this transient supersaturation only in long Krogh cylinders with high blood flows. The effects of diffusion are further reduced by the finite time necessary to switch the inert gases in arterial blood. The conclusions are supported by experiments that measure vascular bubble production after a switch of the inert portion of the inspired gas. These experiments further show that the formation of vascular bubbles after such a switch cannot be entirely explained by the different diffusion constants of the gases used.