You are planning an intense mountain hike, and you know that the concentration of oxygen in the air, and thus its partial pressure, decreases with altitude. You would like to maintain an oxygen concentration of 20 torr in your tissues, and you would like your hemoglobin to maintain a minimum oxygen carrying capacity of 50% as you increase altitude. What is the minimum partial pressure of oxygen at which you can hike and still maintain the desired physiological effect in your tissues?
Individuals with chronic exposure to abnormally high amounts of oxygen, such as deep-sea divers and patients breathing supplemental oxygen, are at risk for developing hyperoxia, a dangerous condition characterized by excess oxygen deposition in body tissues. Imagine that a diver is exposed to an oxygen partial pressure of 300 torr. If the diver’s hemoglobin maintains an oxygen carrying capacity of 66%, how much oxygen will be delivered to the diver’s tissue?
Imagine that scientists discover a new isomer of hemoglobin with a degree of cooperativity of 3.2. This version of hemoglobin is half-saturated with oxygen at 35 torr. What is the percent oxygen carrying capacity that is utilized if atmospheric oxygen is 100 torr and oxygen concentration in the tissues is 20 torr?
