Blood and Circulation Flashcards
(161 cards)
What makes up total body water?
Intracellular fluid (ICF) + Extracellular fluid (ECF)
What does extracellular fluid consist of?
Plasma, interstitial fluid, transcellular fluid (cerebrospinal, synovial, intraocular fluids).
What is the average TBW for a man and a woman?
In a typical man TBW = 60%
In a typical woman TBW = 52% (because fat contains a low amount of water)
What are the 2 differences between the concentration of solutes in interstitial fluid and plasma?
1) The protein concentration in interstitial fluid is very low compared to the plasma.
2) Half the calcium in plasma is protein bound, which means that the total calcium concentration in the interstitial fluid reduces correspondingly as there is already low protein concentration in the interstitial fluid.
Explain what the dilution principle is
Add a known amount of solute to an unknown volume of a liquid.
Can then find the concentration of the solution.
Volume = amount ÷ concentration
(m/c x v)
How can the dilution principle be used to find the volume of different body fluid compartments?
Add a specific solute into the body, and find the concentration of that body compartment.
From this the volume of the body compartment can be calculated.
However because different body compartments have different properties, solutes that look different in different body compartments are used.
What solute is used to find total body water volume?
Tritiated water
3H2O
What solute is used to find extracellular fluid volume?
Inulin
What solute is used to find plasma volume?
Evans blue, 125 I albumin, must stay in vascular system.
Plasma proteins are labelled isotopically.
How can the intracellular volume be calculated?
Calculated by finding the difference between the total body water and the extracellular fluid.
How can the interstitial fluid volume be calculated?
Calculated by finding the difference between the extracellular fluid and plasma.
What factors have to be considered when finding the volume of body compartments in vivo?
1) Have to consider the equilibrium time for a given substance.
3H2O and inulin need time to distribute between the compartments.
2) 3H2O can be lost in urine and sweat.
3) Inulin is filtered by the kidney so will also be lost in urine.
4) Evans blue has a short half life of 10-30 mins so any measurements need to be taken quickly.
Why is transcellular fluid volume usually discounted?
It is relatively small
Define osmotic pressure
Pressure sufficient enough to prevent movement of water into a solution across a partially permeable membrane.
Has a low water potential so will attract water towards it.
It opposes hydrostatic pressure.
Define osmolarity
Number of moles of a solute per litre of water.
Define osmolality
Number of moles of a solute per kilogram of water. In a solution it would be the number of osmoles of solute per kilogram of solvent.
Units are the osmole.
How do you calculate the osmolality of solutions that dissociate in water?
Solutions that dissociate have 2 ions in the solution so the osmolality will double.
Outline the changes in osmolality when glucose is moved into the intracellular fluid?
When glucose moves into the intracellular fluid there will be more solute in this fluid. This therefore means the osmolality of the intracellular fluid will increase. Water moves from a low to high osmolality, so water will move into the intracellular fluid by osmosis.
What is the definition of total osmolality and and example of this?
Total osmolality = sum of osmolality due to each of the constituents of the solution.
An example of this is the plasma. Its osmolality is around 295 mOsmolkg-1.
How much do ions contribute to the osmolality of plasma?
Na+, Cl-, HCO3- contribute ot most of this.
Glucose and other small molecules contribute less than 10 mOsmolkg-1.
Plasma proteins contribute only 1 mOsmolkg-1.
What will happen if the osmolality of the plasma is increased?
Water moves from a low to high osmolality, so water will move into the plasma from other parts of the body.
What is the osmotic gradient if an RBC is placed in a hypotonic solution?
A hypotonic solution will have a low osmolality (less solute).
Water moves from a low to high osmolality. This means that water will move from the solution and into the RBC.
This will cause the RBC to burst by haemolysis.
What is the osmotic gradient if an RBC is placed in a hypertonic solution?
A hypertonic solution has a high osmolality (more solute). Water moves from a low to high osmolality. This means water will move from the RBC and into the solution. This will cause the RBC to undergo crenation.
Define tonicity
Tonicity is the influence of the osmolality of a solution on the volume of cells.