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Mechanical Engineering
Caltech
Abstract-
This lecture will describe a strategy for the rapid delivery of large
quantities of dissolved oxygen to the bloodstream without the formation of
dangerous oxygen gas bubbles. The potential medical benefits of a successful
strategy of this kind are substantial and multi-faceted. Deprivation of
oxygen even for brief periods of time such as occur during heart attacks
or strokes results in cell damage or death - and is the primary cause
of permanent physiological damage during these events. Consequently rapid
therapeutic
oxygen delivery systems could substantially enhance the treatment, for
example, of acute myocardial infarction or acute cerebral stroke. It may
also find application in a broad range of other medical treatments.
The strategy involves the preparation of a highly
concentrated solution of oxygen in an aqueous solution under very
high pressure and the injection of this liquid into the bloodstream
through a small capillary tube or tubes. The innovation is the ability to do
this in a way that avoids the formation of gaseous oxygen bubbles
either inside the capillary or in the highly supersaturated jet that
emerges from the tube.
The experiments described clearly demonstrate that
the nucleation, when it does occur, results from heterogeneous nucleation on
the interior
surface of the distal end of the capillary. A
series of experiments were designed to uncover the parameters which most
influence the phenomenon and, in particular, confirmed the radical effects
of the surface treatment of the interior of the capillary on the nucleation
process. The
results of high speed video observations of the phenomena will also be
presented and compared with a heterogeneous nucleation model developed
to model the processes involved.
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