Biomedical Engineering: Bridging Medicine and Technology 1st Edition by Veronique Tran,Mark Saltzman

Exercise 9

As shown in Figure 7.13, the mass balance model derived and presented in Equation 7.16 predicts that the partial pressure of oxygen is zero when the alveolar ventilation rate is less than 5 L/min (for an oxygen consumption rate of 250 mL/min). In fact, if you use Equation 7.16 to calculate the oxygen partial pressure for alveolar ventilation between 0 and 5 L/min, the equation yields a negative number for partial pressure. Is a negative partial pressure possible? Is the model useful for this range of parameters? Explain.