Reduced oxygen content in equilibrated fresh heparinized and ACD-stored blood from cigarette smokers.

We have shown recently, in fresh heparinized blood drawn from smokers and equilibrated with 95 per cent oxygen in vitro for periods exceeding 30 min, that the oxygen content determined by Van Slyke analysis is significantly lower than in non-smokers' blood. The findings, which we have noted briefly elsewhere (Gregory, Hulands and Millar, 1972), were obtained during investigation of the normal oxygen combining capacity of human haemoglobin, and are similar to those reported by Bureaux and associates (1971). We have, therefore, sought similar effects in blood donated by heavy smokers and stored in the usual way in ACD solutions.