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Eric Maiken writes: > On Sat, 16 Sep 1995, Bernie Woolfrey wrote: > > What do you mean by "Oxygen Window"? > > it was once remarked that the only saturated diver is a dead > diver (hills '77). the partial pressures of gasses dissolved in the > tissues of a living diver sum to less than the pressure of inspired gas. > this difference in pressure is the O2 window (or inherent unsaturation, > etc), resulting from the metabolic exchange of O2 for CO2. At the risk of making this easy to understand ;) perhaps I could rephrase this: The "Oxygen Window" (I prefer the term "inherent unsaturation") is the amount of dissolved gas which is used up in metabolism during the trip from your lungs through your body. That is, your body consumes a certain fraction of the Oxygen you inspire and turns it into the more soluble CO2. This reduces the total partial pressure of gas dissolved in your blood, thereby leaving more "room" for other gases to "ride back" to the lungs in your bloodstream. The more oxygen you have available and consume, the more "room" for other gases to come out of the tissues into the blood and be carried to the lungs, and there be exhaled. Hope that didn't sound too simplistic. It's really a simple effect, in theory. I second Eric's recommendation of _The Physiology and Medicine of Diving_ for more on this, and also refer folks to _Diving Medicine_ (1990, Bove & Davis) for another excellent treatment. Cheers, David Story NAUI AI Z9588, PADI DM 43922, EMT story@be*.en*.sg*.co* Oxygen is a drug in California.
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