Patent ID: 6694969
Filing Date: 2004-02-24
Classification: A61M

Abstract:
A method for improving oxygenation and reducing shunt perfusion in a lung of a subject, the lung having no diagnosis of injury, in which a first portion of alveoli of the lung are collapsed by compression from body organs during an expiratory phase of a respiratory cycle and during the initial portions of an inspiratory phase and are open in the terminal portions of the inspiratory phase, the lungs having a second portion of alveoli that are open during both the inspiratory and expiratory phases of the respiratory cycle, said method comprising the step of:during inspiration of breathing gases by the subject, (a) delivering NO gas to the second portion of alveoli in an amount to cause vasodilatation of capillaries associated with such alveoli to improve blood oxygenation (b) while minimizing delivery of NO gas to the first portion of alveoli to an amount below that causing vasodilatation of capillaries associated with the first portion of alveoli to avoid increasing shunt perfusion in the lungs.