Red Cell and Plasma Transit Through Spleen: The Splenic Hematocrit.

Abstract

Five hundred [mu]curies Cr51-tagged red blood cells and 125 [mu]curies I131-tagged serum albumin were injected into 8 sodium pentobarbital anesthetized dogs and blood samples collected simultaneously from the femoral artery and splenic vein. Time for red cell equilibrium time was 59.3 minutes (22.5 to 87.5 minutes). Plasma equilibrium time was 16.5 minutes (3.5 to 32.5 minutes); red cell mean transit time was 10.09 minutes (6.8 to 39.82 minutes). Plasma mean transit time was 3.75 minutes (0.72 to 8.28 minutes). Average hematocrit of the spleen was 77.6 (65 to 88). Ratio of splenic hematocrit to large vessel hematocrit was 1.96 [plus or minus] .12 S.D. over a range of arterial hematocrits from 31 to 49.5.