The strength of the present study is the combination of various methods to explore small intestinal microcirculation, oxygen transport, and markers of oxygen metabolism simultaneously.
Blood lactate levels, anion gaps, base deficits, pH and bicarbonate levels are used under appropriate clinical conditions as markers of oxygen debt, especially in patients with clinical signs of circulatory shock.
Perturbations in capillary perfusion may have more adverse prognostic significance [ 5] than traditional markers of oxygen utilization, and are implicated in the pathogenesis of organ failure in human sepsis [ 6].
We evaluated systemic and splanchnic oxygen-derived variables during a moderate acute isovolemic hemodilution to test the hypothesis that hemodilution may promote gastric mucosal acidosis, despite an apparent adequacy of global markers of oxygen delivery and consumption.
Several of the commonly occurring VOCs are derived from metabolic pathways that have been previously reported [ 163], for example, isoprene from the mevalonic acid pathway of cholesterol synthesis [ 163] and alkanes which are markers of oxygen free radical (ORF) activity in vivo [ 164].
