Introduction:

Alterations of gas exchange have been recognized in morbid obesity, however, it is not known how their behavior would be as the body mass index increases.

Objective:

To know the behavior of gas exchange at the level of Mexico City in the development of morbid obesity.

Methods:

Through analytical design, subjects matched by gender and age were studied from four different groups of body mass index (kg/m2), normal (18.5-24.9), overweight (25-29.9), obesity (30-39.9) and morbid obesity (≥ 40). Their pathological and demographic antecedents, arterial blood gas and simple spirometry variables were obtained. The variables were shown according to their sample characteristic. The differences between groups were made using one way Anova with Bonferroni adjustment, as well as Pearson’s correlation for the related variables. Statistical significance was considered with p < 0.05.

Results:

560 subjects were studied in 4 groups. The average age 49 ± 11 years old. The highest frequency of diabetes mellitus (34.29%), arterial hypertension (50%) and hiperlipidemia (36.43%) was in the obesity group, and being snoring (73.57%) in morbid obesity. There were differences from the normal group versus. morbid obesity: PaCO2 31.37 ± 2.08 versus. 38.14 ± 5.10 mmHg; PaO2 68.28 ± 6.06 versus. 59.86 ± 9.28 mmHg and SaO2 93.51 ± 1.93 versus. 89.71 ± 5.37%, all with p = 0.0001. The IMC-PaCO2 correlation: 0.497, and IMC-PaO2: −0.365, p = 0.0001 respectively.

Conclusions:

At the altitude of Mexico City and body mass index > 30 kg/m2 the variables related to gas exchange and simple spirometry begin to deteriorate; are evident with BMI > 40 kg/m2.

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