Eli Davis

Clinically Significant Intravascular Red Cell Aggregation

as significant.5 When discrepancies existed between ESR and aggregation, information has usually been absent as to which examination better reflected the clinical state. In the present work this problem has been examined. In addition, since we have seen arteriolar RCA in mild clinical disturbances, e.g., in patients with tension headache, an effort has been made to define clinically significant RCA.

Impaired "Arterialization" of the Venous Blood of the Hand in Raynaud's Disease and Acrocyanosis

The rise of oxygen saturation of the blood in a forearm vein after local heating has been known since the work of Meakins and Davies in 1920.1 Goldschmidt and Light2 showed that immersion of the hand in a water-bath of 44 to -:l:6°C for 10 minutes caused the oxygen content of the blood taken from a vein on the dorsal surface of the hand to rise, and its carbon dioxide content to fall, to the amounts found in arterial blood. This method of &dquo;arterialization&dquo; of venous blood has since been accepted and used.3 The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of local application of heat to the hand on the oxygen saturation and carbon dioxide content of venous blood in patients with Raynaud’s disease and acrocyanosis, comparing the results with those obtained in healthy control subjects.

The effect of pentolinium tartrate (Ansolysen) on blood pressure in terminal vessels and on capillary diameter

Abstract Ten patients with severe hypertension were treated with oral pentolinium tartrate (Ansolysen). Before treatment the blood pressure in the terminal digital vessels was high in all patients, and the diameter of the capillaries in the conjunctivae and nail beds was reduced in most. When effective therapeutic doses of Ansolysen were given, the terminal vessel pressure was reduced in all and became normal in eight patients. Also, the diameter of the capillaries increased appreciably in nearly all the patients. The values of terminal vessel pressure and capillary diameter in these severe cases after treatment with Ansolysen were similar to those found in a group of hypertensive patients whose clinical state was relatively good.

The effect of cervico-thoracic sympathetic block on the small blood vessels.

From the Capillary Research Laboratory and the Department of Anaesthetics, Hadassah University Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel. The effect of both permanent and temporary sympathetic denervation on the peripheral microcirculation has been extensively studied. As a result of sympathetic denervation there are changes in the volume, route, hydrostatic pressures and velocity of capillary flow.’ The study of vasomotor responses in the peripheral small blood vessels is complex since they are not only regulated independently of the remainder of the circulatory systems‘’ but they also vary in different parts of the same limb, e.g., forearm, hand,3w digitS,6 foot, calf and thigh7 as well as in different types of tissue, e.g., muscle, skin.5> s, 9 Consequently, as has already been observed,1° conclusions about the relationship of innervation to microcirculation cannot be generalized beyond the region and the structure under study. The microcirculation, after sympathectomy, has been studied mostly by various indirect methods in man, or by direct observations in experimental animals. With cervico-thoracic sympathetic block an acute sympathetic denervation is obtained in the vessels of the face, neck and upper extremity. To our knowledge, there has been no direct observation of the behavior of the bilateral small blood vessels after unilateral cervico-thoracic sympathetic block. We considered that study of the bulbar conjunctival, lip and nailfold vessels after sympathetic block might yield useful information.