Estimation of pulmonary diffusion resistance and shunt in an oxygen status model.

A compartment model of the transport of oxygen from the alveoli to the tissues is described. In patients with both pulmonary shunt and alveolar resistance to diffusion of oxygen, the model is used to simulate their response to variations in the inspired oxygen fraction. These simulation results are compared to the responses from a patient with respiratory malfunction, indicating that the method can identify patients where not only a pulmonary shunt but also a high alveolar resistance to diffusion of oxygen is clinically significant. Estimation of pulmonary shunt and oxygen diffusion resistance can be done in two different implementations of the model. In the first implementation the estimates are generated by numerical solution of the equations of the compartment model. In the second implementation the equations have been used to construct a causal probabilistic net where biological uncertainties and uncertainties in the measurements can be represented.