The oxygen-carrying flask: a representational transform of the oxygen dissociation curve of hemoglobin
Sircar, S.S.
American Journal of Physiology 266(6 Pt 3): S33-S35
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0002-9513 PMID: 8017517 Document Number: 434954
The teaching of oxygen transport by hemoglobin is supported by a graphic depiction of the sigmoid O-2 dissociation curve of hemoglobin. However, a reconstruction of the same curve into an alternate paradigm, the "O-2-carrying flask," affords a visual demonstration of the significance of its sigmoid shape and the implications of its shifts, which should be useful in elucidating certain aspects of O-2 transport to undergraduate students of physiology. This article provides a mathematical justification for the flask design.