Describe the oxygen cascade, from the atmosphere to the mitochondrion, in a patient breathing room air.

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College Answer

This topic is a core aspect of respiratory physiology. The vast majority of the candidates 
could draw the oxygen cascade, but were let down by not having sufficient breadth and/or 
depth of information (e.g. alveolar gas equation was either omitted, inaccurate or poorly 
described in relation to the oxygen cascade) to describe the physiological principals at each 
step of the cascade