Question

You are monitoring a very sick patient with the following information:
      Blood volume = 4.8 liters, Hematocrit = 48%
      Hemoglobin concentration = 12.3 g/dL whole blood
      Average total amount of oxygen = 1030 mL

You also know that plasma contained 0.38 mL O₂/dL and that hemoglobin was 98% saturated. Unfortunately, the patient developed an unexplained reaction that lowered his hematocrit to 40%, his hemoglobin concentration to 10.3 g/dL and hemoglobin saturation to 90%.  Using the data collected prior to the incident and what you learned in class, estimate the best you can the total oxygen content after the incident. PLEASE UPLOAD A PDF WITH YOR WORK. (20 Extra points possible).

Answer 1

Oxygen is 97% carried by hemoglobulin in blood and 3 % is dissolved in plasma.

The formula for calculating the oxygen content is blood = 1.34 × sPO2 x Hb + 0.003 × pO2

Where

• 1.34ml = is the oxygen that 1 g of hemoglobulin can carry
• sPO2 - oxygen saturation
• Hb= hemoglobulin
• 0.003 = Solubility co-efficient of oxygen
• pO2 - partial pressure of oxygen

The patient lab parameters after the incident:

Hb - 10.3 g/dl

sPO2 - 90% = 0.90

From the oxygen dissociation curve we know that for sPO2 - 90% the pO2 - 60 mmHg

Oxygen content = 1.34 ml / 1g Hb × 10.3 g/dl × 0.90 + 0.003 × 60

Oxygen content = 12.42 ml O2/dl + 0.186 ml O2/dl

Oxygen content = 12.60 ml O2/dl

The oxygen content after the incident is 12.60 mlO2/dl