FIGURE 21.
Compartmental model of muscle with diffusive gas exchange between tissue and all the vascular elements and with convective gas transport along the circulation. The arterioles (a0, a1, a2) and venules (v0, v1, v2) are separated into three compartments on the basis of vessel diameter; Q is the flow through the vascular compartments including the capillary compartment (C). There are two tissue compartments, one representing connective tissue (CT) between parallel segments of the larger arterioles and venules, and the other representing muscle tissue (T) with M equal to the metabolic rate. The Js represent the flux across compartmental boundaries with flux magnitudes governed by the spatially averaged partial pressures (P) and the diffusive conductances (E). (From Roth, A. C. and Wade, K., Microvasc. Res., 32, 64, 1986. With permission.)