Effects of Ventilation-Perfusion Mismatch on Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Modeling Study.

ABSTRACT

Plant gain quantifies the extent and rapidity with which arterial blood gases change following hypopneic or hyperpneic events. High plant gain, acting in concert with a highly collapsible upper airway and low arousal threshold, may contribute significantly towards increasing the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), even when controller gain is low. Elevated plant gain may be a manifestation of abnormal gas exchange resulting from ventilation-perfusion mismatch in the lungs. Using a mathematical model, we explore in this paper how ventilation-perfusion mismatch can affect plant gain, as well as the severity of OSA.