A gas chromatographic technique for determination of blood flow and metabolism in individual organs (with special reference to the heart).

A method for determining blood flow, oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide release in individual organs is presented. For blood flow measurement an inert gas (N2O) technique was used. Blood contents of O2, CO2 and N2O were measured by a gas chromatographic method with use of a special vacuum chamber for extracting the gases from blood. There was a strong correlation between the contents of O2 determined by the gas chromatographic and a spectophotometric method (correlation coefficient 0.953). Good agreement was found between CO2 in gas samples analysed by the Scholander technique and by the gas chromatographic method. A correlation coefficient of 0.998 was obtained between the N2O content calculated theoretically and that determined by the gas chromatographic technique. The new technique presented makes it possible to calculate blood flow in ml/100 g tissue/min, O2 uptake and CO2 production in an individual organ, whereby the predominant type of metabolism in the organ can be ascertained.