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A pulmonary alveolus (pl. alveoli; from Latin alveolus 'little cavity'), also called an air sac or air space, is one of millions of hollow, distensible cup-shaped cavities in the lungs where pulmonary gas exchange takes place. [1] Oxygen is exchanged for carbon dioxide at the blood–air barrier between the alveolar air and the pulmonary ...
It is folded into about 300 million small air sacs called alveoli [23] (each between 75 and 300 μm in diameter) branching off from the respiratory bronchioles in the lungs, thus providing an extremely large surface area (approximately 145 m 2) for gas exchange to occur. [23] The air contained within the alveoli has a semi-permanent volume of ...
The hyaline membranes deposit along the walls of the alveoli, where gas exchange typically occurs, thereby making gas exchange difficult. Acute respiratory distress syndrome ( ARDS ): a potentially life-threatening condition where the alveoli are damaged thereby letting fluid leak into the lungs which makes it difficult to exchange gases and ...
The alveoli are tiny air sacs in the lungs where gas exchange takes place. The mean number of alveoli in a human lung is 480 million. [11] When the diaphragm contracts, a negative pressure is generated in the thorax and air rushes in to fill the cavity. When that happens, these sacs fill with air, making the lung expand.
There are five main air sacs in birds, three of which branch from the ventrobronchi, and two of which branch from the intrapulmonary bronchus connecting the dorsobronchi and ventrobronchi. [2] The air sacs are usually paired, except for the clavicular air sac, creating a total of 9 air sacs. [7] However, this morphology varies among bird species.
Dead space refers to the volume not taking part in gas exchange. [11] Alveolar dead space and insufficient perfusion result in a V/Q ratio above 0.8 with decreased fresh oxygen in the alveoli. [ 1 ] This might have been caused by blood clotting , heart failure , pulmonary emphysema , or damage in alveolar capillaries .
Gas exchange is the physical process by which gases move passively by diffusion across a surface. For example, this surface might be the air/water interface of a water body, the surface of a gas bubble in a liquid, a gas-permeable membrane, or a biological membrane that forms the boundary between an organism and its extracellular environment.
The process might initially seem counterintuitive, as low oxygen levels might theoretically stimulate increased blood flow to the lungs to increase gas exchange. However, the purpose of HPV is to distribute bloodflow regionally to increase the overall efficiency of gas exchange between air and blood.