[Blood cell kinetics in the spleen].

The mean intrasplenic blood cell transit time (STT), splenic blood cell volume (SV) and the slow mixing splenic blood cell volume (SSV) have been measured in normal subjects and patients with congestive and infiltrative splenomegaly. The normal red cell SV was 0.47 +/- 0.14 (mean +/- SD) % of the circulating red cell volume (RCV). In patients with congestive and infiltrative splenomegaly, SV was 9.82 +/- 3.55% and 0.96 +/- 0.71% of RCV, respectively. The SSV was 69.1 +/- 8.4% of the SV in normal subjects, but in patients with splenomegaly, its value was lower than that of normal SSV. The STT was 0.43 +/- 0.11 min. in normal subjects. In the patients with splenomegaly, it prolonged. But, the STT/SV and STT/SSV were rapid in patients with congestive splenomegaly and low in infiltrative splenomegaly. It seemed that SST/SV and STT/SSV were useful to distinguish between congestive and infiltrative splenomegaly. In the intrasplenic granulocyte kinetics, SV was similar to that of red cell. The STT was longer than that of red cell, in normal subjects and patients with splenomegaly. In the intrasplenic platelet kinetics, the ratio of cellular splenic volume to general circulation was the largest in platelets. The STT of platelet was the slowest in blood cells.