Left ventricular performance after blood transfusion in cases of chronic severe anemia. A study of systolic time intervals.

Left ventricular performance was studied by measuring systolic time intervals (STIs) in 15 adult cases of chronic severe anemia (CSA) before and after transfusion of 350 and 700 ml of whole blood at a moderately rapid rate of 5 ml/min. Cases with systemic disease and congestive heart failure were excluded. STIs before blood transfusion (BT) showed wide variations, but these were within normal limits in 80% of the cases. Following BT, left ventricular ejection time (LVET) increased significantly (p less than 0.001) without much change in the pre-ejection phase (PEP). There was no significant change in the PEP/LVET ratio after BT. It is concluded that transfusion of 700 ml of whole blood at a rate of 5 ml/min to patients with CSA is devoid of any risk, so far as myocardial contractile function is concerned.