Injected Microparticles Deliver Life-Saving Oxygen (4 of 5) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Injected Microparticles Deliver Life-Saving Oxygen (4 of 5)

Caption

Blood returning from the body to the heart is normally sent to the lungs where it is replenished with oxygen, but when a patient has severe lung injury, this blood passes through the lungs without picking up any oxygen. In this schematic, microparticles delivered by an intravenous catheter are shown bringing oxygen gas into immediate proximity with red blood cells, so that the oxygen transfer which was supposed to happen in the lungs now takes place in the patient's veins. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the June 27, 2012 issue of Science Translational Medicine, published by AAAS. The paper, by Dr. J.N, Kheir at Children’s Hospital Boston in Boston, Mass., and colleagues, was titled, "Oxygen Gas-Filled Microparticles Provide Intravenous Oxygen Delivery."

Credit

Image concept by J. Kheir; Illustration by E. McIntosh

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