Effects of SO2 and pH on blood-gas partition coefficients of inert gases.

Potential effects of SO2 and of pH on blood-gas partition coefficients, lambda, for inert gases, including SF6, ethane, cyclopropane, halothane, diethyl ether, acetone and N2, were systematically investigated using human blood. Measurements on lambda were performed at 37 degrees C in conditions of varied SO2 and pH using gas chromatography. Incorporating the experimental data on lambda, multiple inert gas elimination was applied to 18 patients with varied chronic lung diseases, in order to estimate the effects of SO2 and of pH on both inert gas exchange and resultant recovery of VA/Q distribution in the lung. For this purpose, the data obtained by the procedure of multiple inert gas elimination were analyzed with the classical approach but allowance was made for lambda of the indicator gas to vary according to exchange of O2 and of CO2 in the pulmonary capillary. Among the gases studied, ethane, cyclopropane, halothane and diethyl ether showed significantly smaller lambda values in the oxygenated blood than in deoxygenated blood, whereas SF6, acetone and N2 were little dependent on SO2. An increase in lambda was found for ethane and a decrease for halothane with increasing pH in the blood. The other gases were not significantly influenced by pH. In spite of these experimental findings, regional difference of either SO2 or pH in the lung did not exert important influence on the inert gas exchange or on the predicted VA/Q distribution. In conclusion, blood-gas partition coefficients of some inert gases are consistently altered by SO2 and pH, but their possible effects on inert gas exchange seem to be negligible.