Researchers from many disciplines, with both basic and clinical perspectives, came together in this volume to review and debate issues pertaining to the investigation and control of tissue oxygenation in acute medicine, as well as treatments to improve tissue oxygenation when abnormal. In this latter context, special emphasis is placed on understanding the effect of blood substitutes on the circulation and on the potential roles of this family of compounds in clinical medicine. Physiology of Oxygen Delivery.- Role of the Cardiorespiratory System in Delivering Oxygen.- Intraorgan Heterogeneity of Blood Flow, Oxygen Consumption and Tissue Oxygenation.- The Microcirculation and Tissue Oxygenation.- Oxygen Distribution and Consumption by the Microcirculation and the Determinants of Tissue Survival.- Oxygen Signaling Cascades in Mammalian Cells.- Hypoxia and Its Consequences.- Hypoxic Hypoxia.- Circulatory Hypoxia.- Anemic Hypoxia.- Cytopathic Hypoxia: Mitochondrial Dysfunction as a Potential Mechanism Contributing to Organ Failure in Sepsis.- Poly (ADP-ribose) Synthetase Activation in Circulatory Shock.- Cellular Responses to Hypoxia: Possible Relevance to Multiple Organ Failure in Critical Illness?.- The Mitochondrial Permeability Transition.- Measuring Tissue Oxygenation.- The Available Clinical Tools - Oxygen-Derived Variables, Lactate, and pHi.- Microcirculatory Flows, Microcirculatory Responsiveness, Microcirculatory and Regional (Arteriolar/Venular) O2 Saturations.- Monitoring the Systemic Circulation in Sepsis with Microelectrodes.- Oxygen Electrodes, Optode Microsensing, Near-Infrared Spectroscopy, Spectrophotometry.- Blood and Blood Substitutes as Oxygen Carriers.- The Optimal and Critical Hemoglobin in Health and Acute Illness.- Hemoglobin-Based Artificial Oxygen Carriers (HBOC): Classification and Historical Overview.- Hemoglobin Solutions: Effects on Tissue Oxygenation.- Effect of Diaspirin Crosslinked Hemoglobin on Systemic and Regional Blood Circulation.- Blood Substitutes - Effects on the Microcirculation.- Perfluorocarbons as Oxygen Carriers.- Serum-Free Hemoglobin Increases Tumor Necrosis Factor Synthesis and Lipopolysaccharide Lethality.- Enhancement of Tissue Oxygenation by Intracellular Introduction of InositolHexaphosphate by Flow Electroporation of Red Blood Cells.
