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Nitrogen uptake and elimination is primarily referred to as inert gas exchange. This term highlights the fact that nitrogen is a non-reactive gas in the body under normal physiological conditions, meaning it does not participate in metabolic processes like oxygen does. Instead, nitrogen is absorbed in varying amounts into body tissues while a person is breathing compressed air at increased pressures, and it is also eliminated when returning to lower pressures.

In the context of hyperbaric medicine, understanding inert gas exchange is crucial to grasping the principles of gas diffusion and the risk of decompression sickness. Here, the focus is on how nitrogen behaves in the body under different pressures, rather than the active exchange involving gases like oxygen, which is fundamental for metabolism. Given this context, while concepts like gas diffusion and ventilation exchange describe different aspects of gas behavior and movement within the respiratory system, they do not specifically target the unique behavior of inert gases such as nitrogen during hyperbaric treatments. Thus, inert gas exchange is the most appropriate term to describe nitrogen uptake and elimination.