THE DEPENDENCY OF THE DIFFUSING CAPACITY ON THE HbO2 SATURATION OF THE CAPILLARY BLOOD AND ON ANEMIA

Abstract

The diffusing capacities D_L's of oxygen were measured in dogs at various inspired O₂-tensions and at various red cell numbers in the circulating blood in order to compare two capacity components, that is, the red cell component D_B and the membrane component D_M. D_B is related to the average HbO₂ saturation of the capillary blood, the red cell concentration, the cardiac output and the contact time as theoretically investigated in the previous paper. Hence, the authors compared D_M and D_r, or D_L and D_B with each other by using the relations both between D_B and HbO₂ saturation, and between D_B and the red cell number, because D_L measured can be expressed as From the results it was shown to be highly possible that D_M is at least three to four times as great as D_B, so that one could practically put D_L=D_B. It was further made clear that the contact time became c. 0.18 sec. on an average in dogs in case D_M=∞.