• J E Baumgardner, I C Choi, A Vonk-Noordegraaf, H F Frasch, G R Neufeld, and B E Marshall.
• Department of Anesthesia, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-4283, USA. jbaumgar@mail.med.upenn.edu
• J. Appl. Physiol. 2000 Nov 1;89(5):1699-708.

AbstractWe developed micropore membrane inlet mass spectrometer (MMIMS) probes to rapidly measure inert-gas partial pressures in small blood samples. The mass spectrometer output was linearly related to inert-gas partial pressure (r(2) of 0.996-1.000) and was nearly independent of large variations in inert-gas solubility in liquid samples. We infused six inert gases into five pentobarbital-anesthetized New Zealand rabbits and used the MMIMS system to measure inert-gas partial pressures in systemic and pulmonary arterial blood and in mixed expired gas samples. The retention and excretion data were transformed into distributions of ventilation-to-perfusion ratios (V(A)/Q) with the use of linear regression techniques. Distributions of V(A)/Q were unimodal and broad, consistent with prior reports in the normal rabbit. Total blood sample volume for each VA/Q distribution was 4 ml, and analysis time was 8 min. MMIMS provides a convenient method to perform the multiple inert-gas elimination technique rapidly and with small blood sample volumes.

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