[Experimental study on the measurement of bone marrow blood flow using electrochemically generated hydrogen].

There are two problems in clinical application of the blood flow measurement by the electrochemically generated hydrogen method: one is to determine the diffusion transport value (DTV) in the absence of blood flow; the other is the variability of DTV among the individual electrodes. In order to solve these problems, I developed a technique to estimate DTV in vivo based on the DTV measured in in vitro experiments. Significant correlation between the DTV of human bone marrow without blood flow (y) and the DTV in 0.5% agar gel dissolved in physiological saline at 0 degrees C (x) was obtained: y = 0.980x + 0.494, r = 0.984, p less than 0.005. It is therefore possible to determine DTV in human bone marrow without blood flow from the DTV measured in vitro. The present technique to estimate DTV in bone marrow via DTV measured in vitro is useful clinically in monitoring blood flow of free vascularized bone graft and of femoral head after fracture-dislocation of the hip.