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“Not how long, but how well you have lived, is the sum of everything.”

Seneca, (4BC-65AD), Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, statesman, dramatist and satirist.

Symptoms of Lung Emboli

If you ever suffer this entity, you would be astonished not to observe what is written in medical textbooks.

Those last ones describe thoracic pain, frequently at first place and excruciating.

Unless the pleura is involved in the process, this would rarely happen, if ever.

In fact, the patient reports lung oppression and difficulty at inspiring fresh air.

I wondered how this could be explained.

Main feature of this disorder is obstruction of pulmonary arteries.

When this happens, no blood gas exchange can take place at the site involved.

Alveoli remain filled with oxygen and without CO2.

In this situation tiny bronchioles contract and do not permit air circulation.

Only after CO2 reaches a certain level in alveoli, bronchioles reopen to permit ventilation of the unit.

In a similar way, fine vascular bed is more richly substantiated in dorsal lung areas, because of mostly adopted dorsal recumbent position.

(Simply because of gravity.)

With the Covid-19 pandemics medical workers observed thus better patient oxygenation in ventral recumbency.

Blood gas exchange was thus better when dorsal areas were more ventilated.