A STUDY OF THE VOLUME OF THE BLOOD IN CONGESTIVE HEART FAILURE. RELATION TO OTHER MEASUREMENTS IN FIFTEEN PATIENTS

Abstract

In 15 patients with severe congestive heart failure, the blood volume, arterial and venous pressure, circulation time, arterial and venous O2 content and combining power and serum proteins were measured. The blood volume was increased in all cases; both the plasma and the cells contributing to the increase. There was no simple correlation between the blood volume and other measurements made, nor between the venous pressure and the circulation time. A negative correlation of moderate significance was found between the venous pressure and the plasma volume. The logarithm of the circulation time bore a linear relation to the ratio between the transverse heart diam. and the internal chest diam. in 8 cases where, roentgenograms of the chest were taken. The venous hematocrit and Hb gave little indication of the actual vol. of circulating cells. There was a highly significant correlation between the degree of anoxemia measured by Lundsgaard''s "capillary unsaturation" and the increase in cell volume. In 3 patients who improved, all measurements tended to shift towards normal, the plasma vol. decreasing more than the cell vol. In the patient who grew worse, the reverse was the case.