Abstract
The most common pulmonary diseases are chronic bronchitis, lung fibrosis and emphysema. These diseases comprise those conditions which are accompanied by flow-limitation of the airways and loss of elastic recoil of the lung parenchyma. The altered function causes characteristic changes of the lung vasculature and the pulmonary hemodynamics. The pathological result of all mechanisms involved are hypoxemia. The hemorheological situation depends on the chronic oxygen deficiency and their consequences to red cell and thrombocyte function. Based on datas of some preliminary studies in patients with longlasting hypoxemia due to chronic lung disease there will be given a critical review over the literature.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.