88 



Scientific Proceedings (97). 



50 (1425) 



Arterial and venous oxygen in pneumonia and influenza. 



By William C. Stadie (by invitation). 



[From the Hospital of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 



New York City.] 



A technique for the puncture of the radial artery was devised 

 which is simple and does no injury to the artery. The blood thus 

 obtained was studied with respect to its oxygen content and the 

 oxygen capacity by the Van Slyke gasometric method. In 

 addition, venous blood was obtained by the technique of Lunds- 

 gaard and studied in the same way. Fifty observations were made 

 upon twenty-five patients. Most of these cases had broncho- 

 pneumonia, usually post-influenza. A few had lobar pneumonia 

 and some had uncomplicated influenza. 



In normal controls the arterial blood varied from 85 to 98 

 per cent, saturated with oxygen. In patients with the type of 

 respiratory diseases outlined above, the arterial blood is rarely 

 more than 90 per cent, saturated. Some patients had as little 

 as 85 per cent, of saturation without cyanosis, but, as a rule, 

 when the arterial saturation falls below 85 per cent., it is associated 

 with cyanosis. With an arterial saturation below 80 per cent, 

 the cyanosis becomes marked, and in no case when the arterial 

 saturation was below 80 per cent, did the patient recover. 



In the influenzal type of bronchopneumonia the patient main- 

 tains his arterial saturation somewhere between 85 and 90 per 

 cent, until twelve or twenty-four hours before death, when it falls 

 rapidly. In one or two cases the arterial saturation was as little 

 as 32 per cent., but this was six to twelve hours antemortem. 

 These cases were all intensely cyanotic. In no case was there 

 any striking diminution of oxygen capacity, even in the cases of 

 marked septicaemia. In several cases where the low arterial 

 oxygen saturation was associated with cyanosis, the disappearance 

 or diminution of the cyanosis during recovery of the patient was 

 accompanied by an increase of the arterial oxygen. 



In general, the venous oxygen closely parallels the arterial in 

 its per cent, of oxygen saturation, except in cases of failing cir- 

 culation, where the venous oxygen is disproportionately low. 



