The effect of experimental cerebral concussion on the blood volume and the pattern of distribution of radioactive chromium-51 tagged red blood cells.

Abstract

In addition, our previous observations of patients with craniocerebral in- juries, when radioactive iodinated hmnan serum albumin and chromium-51 tagged red blood cells were used, indicated that in 80 per cent of these there was an alteration in blood volume from the calculated normal levels. In those cases in which cerebral trauma clinically appeared to be of a more severe degree, there was a progressive loss of red-cell mass and a blood- volume increase. There developed also an anemia as a result of these two physiological changes. In order to obtain more precise information as to what may be occurring in the physiological milieu during concussion, we thought it worth while to get a visual representation of the red-cell distribu- tion under controlled conditions. This paper is a summary of the blood volume and of the red-cell distribu- tion in experimentally produced concussion as determined with radioactive chromium-51 tagged cells. This pattern (profile) of the red-cell mass, specifi- cally of the spleen and the splanchnic area, was obtained by means of an im- proved scanning device. MATERIALS