Determination of Blood Volume in the Heart and Lungs and the Cardiac Output through the Injection of Radiophosphorus

Abstract

The dilution curve of the specific activity of the erythrocytes in the arterial blood after intravenous injection of labeled erythrocytes with P³² has been treated mathematically. It is possible with the help of the dilution curve to calculate the minute volume of the heart and the thoracic pool (the residual blood of the heart + the blood content of the lungs). The values of the thoracic pool amount to about 30 per cent of the total circulatory blood-volume.