Oxygen saturation of small arteries and veins (20-500 micron) was determined microspectrophotometrically in the hearts of 12 pentobarbital-anesthetized open-chest dogs. Hearts were removed, quick frozen in liquid propane, and O2 saturation was determined in blood vessels on a regional basis between and within ventricular walls. No significant differences existed in arterial O2 saturation betwee...

1. Six unanaesthetized goats were used to evaluate the effect of liver failure on the hypoxic responsiveness of cerebral blood flow. The animals breathed air and several different hypoxic gas mixtures enriched with sufficient CO2 to maintain an isocapnic state. The cerebral metabolic rate for O2 (CMRo2) was also measured in four of these goats. 2. In baseline studies there was a linear relation...

In adult mammals, arterial blood gases closely reflect lung gas composition, and arterial blood gases can, therefore, be effectively regulated through changes in ventilation. This is not the case among most ectothermic vertebrates, where the systemic and pulmonary circulations are not completely separated, resulting in central vascular shunts. In the presence of a right-to-left shunt (R-L shunt...

The effects of discontinuous hypoxia on cerebrovascular regulation in humans are unknown. We hypothesized that five nocturnal hypoxic exposures (8 h/day) at a simulated altitude of 4,300 m (inspired O2 fraction = approximately 13.8%) would elicit cerebrovascular responses that are similar to those that have been reported during chronic altitude exposures. Twelve male subjects (26.6 +/- 4.1 yr, ...

The delivery of oxygen by arterial blood to the tissues of the body has a number of critical determinants including blood oxygen concentration (content), saturation (S O2 ) and partial pressure, haemoglobin concentration and cardiac output, including its distribution. The haemoglobin-oxygen dissociation curve, a graphical representation of the relationship between oxygen satur-ation and oxygen ...

Studies are needed to provide a rigorous examination of the relevance of monitored variables during prolonged hemorrhagic hypotension (HH). This study was designed to investigate the parameters that describe biochemical and O2 transport patterns in animals subjected to HH. Systemic parameters that could differentiate survivors from nonsurvivors were identified. An aortic flow probe was implante...

The amount of O(2) available to tissues is essentially the product of cardiac output, [Hb], and O(2) saturation. Saturation depends on P(O2) and the O(2)Hb dissociation curve. With altitude, increased [2,3-DPG] shifts the dissociation curve rightward, but hypocapnia and alkalosis move it leftward. We determined both standard and in vivo P(50) in 5 fit subjects decompressed over 42 days in an al...

Unrestrained, quiescent starry flounder maintained approximately normal levels of O2 uptake in the face of severe experimental anaemia. At haematocrits above about 5%, the only major compensation was a reduction in venous O2 tension which lowered venous saturation and thereby kept a constant difference between arterial and venous O2 contents. Below a haematocrit of about 5%, this difference dec...

Aim. Chronic maternal iron deficiency anemia has been found to be related with preterm delivery, low birth weight and intrauterine growth retardation. The potential detrimental effects of maternal anemia on the transplacental fetal oxygen extraction during labor have not been investigated yet. Method. Upon the spontaneous initiation of delivery among 32 term pregnant women, half of them with he...