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Jason wrote: > Here's my thought; several DCS planning systems use a 'slab' >concept, that being that rather than several seperate tissues, you treat >the body as a slab of tissue with the fastest and most resilient tissues >exposed to the air, and the slowest and most susceptible (critical >ratios lowest) furthest away. > > Could we be seeing the release over time of N2 from the slower >parts of the 'slab' into the faster parts, maybe as dissolved N2, maybe >as microbubbles? That would explain the time the symptoms take to pass >(several hours), yet sits easier with me wrt the site of action e.g. >blood or brain. Okay, I may get burned for this, but... As I understand it the slab concept is just a modelling mechanism that produces fairly good results. The compartmental approach to modelling DCI does not actually have specific tissues that exactly correspond with the compartments. That is why some model the body with 1 compartment (slab), some with 3, some with 7, etc. All seem to work to produce reasonable tables. Let me precede the next few comments by mentioning I am an engineer by trade not a physiologist. The circulatory system for the most part distributes fluids and dissolved gases to the various tissues of the body in parallel. I can envision places where gases must diffuse through on tissue to get to another. But for the most part, I picture the body as distributing gases to the tissues roughly simultaneously in proportion to the concentration gradient. Likewise I also imagine the tissues dumping their excess gases in parallel until the concentration in the blood causes the rate of dumping to decrease below the rate that physics dictates it must be. Anyway, in summary, I think we should look to physiology rather than the model for mechanisms involved in DCI. Mark -- Mark Lefevre "Love hides inside the rainbow MCU Design Engineer Love hides in molecular structures Mitsubishi Semiconductor Love is the answer" -Jim M./Doors 3 Diamond Lane; Durham, NC 27705
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