Word: lungsful
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The anthrax bacteria, which most commonly affects cattle, were found in lymph nodes which drain the lungs. This suggests that victims inhaled the anthrax spores. From there, the bacteria spread through the body.
Pneumonia plugs up the lung's air spaces, reducing the surface area available for the lungs to exchange gas with the blood. Nitric oxide, produced naturally by organ linings as a hormone to dilate blood vessels, works by improving gas exchange efficiency in the remaining unclogged spaces.
When a patient breathes nitric oxide, Zapol said, the gas never leaves the lungs. Instead, it combines with oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in red blood cells and is deactivated, so that any effects are purely local.
This also means that rather than decreasing blood pressure through out the body, a danger of other conventional treatments, nitric oxide only reduces pressure in the lungs.
Previous treatment for similar respiratory diseases have included mechanical ventilation and infusion of high levels of oxygen, Zapol said, but "nothing to make the lungs smarter."