Mathematical modeling of perfluorocarbon chemical (PFC) bio-distribution during liquid ventilation of lambs

Liquid ventilation, a technique through which an infant´s stiff and fragile lungs are gently expanded by a synthetic liquid, has made enormous clinical progress in recent years. However, during LV, PFC vapors are known to diffuse across the alveoli and be subsequently distributed to various tissues via the arterial system. Since PFC vapors are soluble in tissue lipids, small amount of PFC is thus expected to accumulate in the tissues of the ventilated subject. In this paper, a flow-limited mathematical model, formulated on the mass-balanced principle, has been devised to predict the temporal distribution of tissue PFC concentrations. The solution to the model is dependent on blood flow and partition coefficient, and the modeling results are in general within one standard deviation of the mean experimental tissue concentrations