The dependency of the diffusing capacity on the HbO2 saturation of the capillary blood and on anemia.

Abstract

The diffusing capacities DL'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 DB and the membrane component DM.DB 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 DM and Dr, or DL and DB with each other by using the relations both between DB and HbO2 saturation, and between DB and the red cell number, because DL measured can be expressed asFrom the results it was shown to be highly possible that DM is at least three to four times as great as DB, so that one could practically put DL=DB. It was further made clear that the contact time became c. 0.18 sec. on an average in dogs in case DM=∞.