Pulmonary Gas Transfer

Introduction

　The primary function of the lung is to transfer gas　into or out of the blood．　Many patients with lung　disease have inefficient gas transfer and consequently　develop arterial hypoxemia．　The same situation occurs　in climbers on Mount Everest because of the low　inspired Po₂．　It is interesting to compare and contrast　the two situations and in this brief review I shall first　look at recent methods of elucidating the causes of　hypoxemia in patients with lung disease, and then go　on to describe some of our recent findings from the　American Medical Research Expedition to Everest．