SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS 



Abstracts of Communications. 

 One hundred twenty-fifth meeting. 



New York Post-Graduate Medical College, October 18, 1922 

 President Wallace in the chair. 



I (1961) 



An oxyhcemoglobinometer for the clinical measurement of 



cyanosis. 



By P. J. FLAGG (by invitation) 



[From the Rockefeller Institute, New York City] 



Cyanosis occurs as a local or general manifestation of oxygen 

 unsaturation. Localized cyanosis, such as is seen in the blue lips 

 of bathers experiencing a temporary superficial vaso constric- 

 tion for heat preservation, or, that which is seen as the result of 

 gravity, (Trendelenburg posture) constriction by Tourniquet, 

 etc., is quite a different matter from the generalized cyanosis 

 observed in patients with warm perspiring skin free from all 

 effects of gravity. A simple capillary stasis in a localized region 

 usually accounts for the former condition; while the latter im- 

 plies a systemic sub-oxygenation of far reaching significance. 

 While cyanosis is seen in diseases of the heart and lungs, in 

 ascent to high altitudes and in various forms of chemical poison- 

 ing, there is, perhaps, no condition in which the extremes may be 

 so readily studied as during the administration of a general 

 anaesthetic. 



Some eight years ago, while teaching anaesthesia, the writer 

 became impressed with the need of a clinical measure of cyanosis. 



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