Respiratory failure is inadequate gas exchange by the respiratory system, with the result that arterial oxygen and/or carbon dioxide levels cannot be maintained within their normal ranges. A drop in blood oxygenation is known as hypoxemia; a rise in arterial carbon dioxide levels is called hypercapnia. The normal reference values are: oxygen PaO2 greater than 80 mmHg (11 kPa), and carbon dioxide PaCO2 less than 45 mmHg (6.0 kPa). Classification into type I or type II relates to the absence or presence of hypercapnia respectively.
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“The failure of women to produce genius of the first rank in most of the supreme forms of human effort has been used to block the way of all women of talent and ambition for intellectual achievement.”
—Anna Garlin Spencer (1851–1931)