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Etiology of Gas Bubble Disease
Author(s) -
Bouck Gerald R.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
transactions of the american fisheries society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.696
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1548-8659
pISSN - 0002-8487
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8659(1980)109<703:eogbd>2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - bubble , population , medicine , cause of death , mortality rate , disease , supersaturation , chemistry , mechanics , physics , environmental health , organic chemistry
Gas bubble disease is a noninfectious, physically induced process caused by uncompensated hyperbaric pressure of total dissolved gases. When pressure compensation is inadequate, dissolved gases may form emboli (in blood) and emphysema (in tissues). The resulting abnormal physical presence of gases can block blood vessels (hemostasis) or tear tissues, and may result in death. Population mortality is generally skewed, in that the median time to death occurs well before the average time to death. Judged from mortality curves, three stages occur in gas bubble disease: (1) a period of gas pressure equilibrium, nonlethal cavitation, and increasing morbidity; (2) a period of rapid and heavy mortality; and (3) a period of protracted survival, despite lesions, and dysfunction that eventually terminates in total mortality. Safe limits for gas supersaturation depend on species tolerance and on factors that differ among hatcheries and rivers, between continuous and intermittent exposures, and across ranges of temperature and salinity.