[Survival of 51cr-tagged red blood cells in patients with artificial heart valves (author's transl)].

Survival of 51Cr-tagged erythrocytes is determined in 10 patients approximately 1 week after insertion of an artificial heart valve ("early hemolysis") and in 9 patients approximately 2 years after heart valve replacement ("late hemolysis"). Red blood cell survival is found to be significantly reduced in all patients following insertion of an artificial heart valve as compared to a group of control patients. Hemolysis is significantly more pronounced in the early postoperative phase than two years postoperatively. LDH and plasma hemoglobin are relatively good indicators of hemolysis but less reliable than the determination of t/2 Cr.