THE DETERMINATION OF THE CIRCULATING BLOOD VOLUME IN INFANTS BY THE CARBON MONOXIDE METHOD

Abstract

Technical details are described for the application of the CO method to blood volume determinations in infants. In 10 patients, the blood volume was simultaneously measured both by the CO method and by the dye method, with which all previously reported figures for infants have been obtained the new method gave a lower figure, averaging 71 cc./kgm. of body weight contrasted with 93 cc./kgm. for the dye method, and showed less scattering of the series. In 24 determinations of blood volume by the CO method made on 22 infants in widely divergent nutritional states, figures were obtained which gave a fair correlation with body weight and surface area, showing that in infants as well as in adults the volume of the circulating blood varies roughly with these functions. For the entire series the relationship of blood volume to body weight is expressed by the formula: B.V. in cc. = (Wt. in kgm.) X (77 [plus or minus] 13), the figures representing the arithmetical mean and the standard deviation.