Relationships between blood oxygen parameters in patients with chronic obstructive lung disease

The hemoglobin-oxygen dissociation curve and the relationships between the parameters of tension, saturation, capacity, affinity and concentration of oxygen in the course of respiratory failure in chronic obstructive lung diseases (COLD) were studied. The study included 141 patients divided into four basic groups according to the value of pO2 (a): patients with normoxia, mild, moderate and severe arterial hypoxia. The blood-gas status was determined using the ABL-330 and OSM-3 analyzers (Radiometer A/S, Denmark). It is concluded that: 1. Presence of normoxia (pO2 and sO2 in norm) in COLD patients does not exclude abnormalities in their arterial blood oxygen transport and increased risk of tissue hypoxia. 2. Total oxygen concentration in respiratory failure is relatively stable and "independent" from the stepwise decrease of the arterial pO2, which results from the compensatory increase of the total and effective hemoglobin. 3. There are phase fluctuations of the ctO2/pO2 dissociation curve in the reference interval, expressed in the "lowering" of P50 and p90 in mild hypoxia and the "centering" or "raising" of their values in severe hypoxia. Such fluctuations are more pronounced in the p90 than in the p50. 4. The oxygen extraction tension lowers progressively (without reaching the anaerobic threshold) and the oxygen compensation factor elevates with the pO2 (a) reduction and the arising of hypercapnia and acidemia. 5. The calculated 2,3-diphosphoglycerate (2,3-DPG) concentration values are significantly higher in hypercapnics with COHb > 1% than in those with COHb < 1%. The relationships between hypoxia, oxygen affinity, hemoglobinemia and oxygen affinity as well as the dissociation curve properties in chronic respiratory failure are discussed.