THE OXYGEN CONTENT OF THE BLOOD IN LOBAR PNEUMONIA

Abstract

In most cases of uncomplicated lobar pneumonia the decrease of respiratory surface is completely compensated for, and the oxygen content of the blood is within normal limits. Occasional cases of uncomplicated pneumonia have an oxygen content of the venous blood which is below normal. In the two cases reported here, this was associated with a carbon dioxide content of the blood which was higher than normally, and the condition was apparently due to an interference with the respiratory exchange of gases. In the terminal stage of the fatal cases of pneumonia in which death does not occur with great suddenness, there is often a progressive diminution in the oxygen content of the blood. Synchronous with this is a progressive decrease in the oxygen-combining capacity of the blood. These changes are usually seen in patients in whom an intense bacteremia has developed and are analogous to those found in the arterial blood of infected rabbits, and to those resulting from the growth of the pneumococcus in blood in vitro. In all three conditions there is probably a change of oxyhemoglobin to methemoglobin. This change of the hemoglobin molecule, so that it no longer takes up and gives off oxygen readily, is probably a factor in the immediate cause of death in many cases of pneumonia.