"Oxygen is transported in blood by two mechanisms: chemical binding and physical dissolution. Under normal physiologic conditions, oxygen is delivered to tissues through reversible chemical binding with hemoglobin. At physiologic pH, each hemoglobin molecule combines maximally with four molecules of oxygen. Each gram of oxygen saturated hemoglobin carries 1.34 ml of oxygen, thus, when fully oxygenated, 15 g of hemoglobin can transport approximately 20 ml of oxygen per 100 ml of blood (ie, 20 vol%). This is in sharp contrast to the nearly inconsequential amount of oxygen dissolved in the blood plasma."
"At a normal arterial oxygen partial pressure of 100 mmHg, only 0.003 ml of oxygen are dissolved per milliliter of blood. As a result, only 0.30 ml (0.31 vol%) of O2 are carried in solution in each 100 ml of arterial blood at normal arterial blood oxygen tension (PaO2) and normal body temperature. However, once hemoglobin is fully saturated, further increases in oxygen partial pressure can affect only the plasma dissolved oxygen fraction."
Fife CE, Camporesi EM.
Physiologic Effects of hyperbaric
Normobaric Inhalation
(Breathing under normal atmospheric conditions)
"The sequence of the respiration process begins as air enters the corridors of the nose or mouth, where it is warmed and moistened. The air then passes through the pharynx, larynx, and trachea and into the bronchi. The bronchi branch into the lungs into smaller and smaller bronchioles, ending in clusters of tiny air sacs[alveoli]. The blood flows through the lungs in the pulmonary circulation. Through the thin membrane of the network of capillaries around the alveoli, the air and the blood exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide."
Miller BF, Keane CB
Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine,
Nursing and Allied Health: Second Edition.
WB Saunders Company
Philadelphia 1978
Figure 1
"The hyperoxygenation effect is explained by Henry's Law. As the partial pressure of inspired oxygen increases, the amount of physically dissolved oxygen in plasma increases proportionately."
MB Strauss, et al.
Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine. 1984