Main description:

Gas Bubble Dynamics in the Human Body provides a broad range of professionals, from physicians working in a clinic, hospital or hyperbaric facility, to physical scientists trying to understand and predict the dynamics of gas bubble behavior in the body, with an interdisciplinary perspective on gas-bubble disease. Both iatrogenic and decompression-induced gas bubbles are considered. The basic medical and physiological aspects are described first, in plain language, with numerous illustrations that facilitate an intuitive grasp of the basic underlying medicine and physiology. Current issues in the field, particularly microbubbles and microparticles, and their possible role in gas-bubble disease are included. The physical and mathematical material is given at several levels of sophistication, with the "hard-core" math separated out in sections labelled "For the Math Mavens", so that the basic concepts can be grasped at a descriptive level. The field is large and multi-disciplinary, so that some of the discussion that is at a greater depth is given separately in sections labelled "In Greater Detail". Skipping these sections for whatever reason, shouldn't materially hamper acquiring an overall appreciation of the field.

Contents:

1. Bubbles in the body: The not so good, the bad and the ugly 2. Driving force for gas bubble growth and dissolution 3. Rates of gas bubble growth and dissolution in simple liquids 4. Estimating the radii and lifetimes of small gas bubbles suspended in simple liquids 5. AGEs in scuba diving and in DCS-like problems in breath-hold diving 6. Gas bubbles in soft tissue-like solids 7. The evils that bubbles do 8. Compartmental decompression models and DCS risk estimation 9. Treating teh evils that bubbles do 10. Merging medicine and Mmath: Gas bubble dynamics in the treatment of gas-bubble disease