A patient has a lung disorder that reduces oxygen uptake in the alveoli. What is the most likely effect on blood transport in the lungs?
Less oxygen enters blood in pulmonary veins
The alveoli are the tiny air sacs of the lungs where gas exchange takes place. Oxygen diffuses from the alveolar air into the blood of the surrounding capillaries, while carbon dioxide diffuses out of the blood into the alveoli.
Blood leaving these capillaries is collected by the pulmonary veins, which carry oxygenated blood back to the left atrium of the heart. If a lung disorder reduces oxygen uptake in the alveoli, less oxygen is loaded into this blood, so the pulmonary veins carry blood with lower oxygen content.
The disorder described affects oxygen uptake, so the direct change is in oxygen content rather than carbon dioxide build-up in the pulmonary veins. The pulmonary artery carries deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, so it cannot carry more oxygen than usual.
Faster blood flow is not the direct result of reduced uptake in the alveoli; the immediate effect is simply poorer oxygenation of the blood passing through the lungs.
Hence, Less oxygen enters blood in pulmonary veins.
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