COMPROMISED CONVALESCENCE FROM HYALINE MEMBRANE DISEASE

[摘要] Those unfamiliar with the technique and manipulation of blood gas analysis as so artfully employed by T. M. Adamson and colleagues in this issue may appreciate some exposition of this important work. The commentator hopes briefly to orient the reader sufficiently to perceive the method and message of what Adamson, et al. have done.If the reader be one of those medical students of all ages fortunate enough to have browsed (or plowed) through Comroe's The Lung, he will instantly recognize that the hypoxemic (but not always cyanotic) patient can have only a limited differential diagnosis of functional impairment. Barring such side issues as methemoglobinemia, the hemoglobinopathies, and the hypoxia of altitude as causes of low (usually less than 75 to 80 mm Hg) arterial oxygen pressure, the possibilities for cardiopulmonary derangements of physiology are four in number: (1) simple hypoventilation , (2) diffusion barriers to gas exchange across the alveolar membrane, and the effective venous admixture produced either by (3) ventilation/perfusion imbalance in the lung or by true anatomic (4) venoarterial shunting .

[学科分类] 儿科学