Samuel Kaplan

Perfluorocarbons Having a Short Dwell Time in the Liver

Perfluorinated organic liquids are useful as high capacity oxygen and carbon dioxide solvents. After intravenous infusion most of these perfluorinated emulsions are deposited in the liver and spleen in a matter of days, where they remain for the lifetime of the animal. Hence, while they may be useful as isolated organ perfusion media their value as artificial blood is limited. A family of perfluorocarbons has now been discovered, which, although deposited in the liver after circulation in the blood, leave the liver to be excreted via the lungs and skin in a matter of days without apparent harmn to the animal.

Ring versus straight chain perfluorocarbon emulsions for perfusion media

Over 100 perfluorinated organic substances (PFS) oxygen solvents and 80 surfactants have been tested in emulsions for possible use as artificial blood. Most PFS are too toxic, will not form stable emulsions, have too high a vapor pressure, or become firmly attached to the liver, where they are found in both Kupffer cells and hepatocytes. The most promising emulsifiers are Pluronic F68 and Vitrum egg phospholipid. Perfluoromethyldecalin, perfluorodecalin, and perfluorodimethyladamantane are cyclic PFS which are nontoxic oxygen solvents and which are only temporarily retained in the liver. Most straight chain fluorocarbons (C10 or less)—either completely fluorinated or containing terminal hydrogens, bromine, or iodine—are found to leave the liver within periods of 2 wk to several months. Physiologically useful water soluble PFS are reported here for the first time. Although animals survive in apparent health for years with large amounts of certain PFS in the liver and spleen, such linkage indicates a definite reaction with tissue. Therefore, it seems better to avoid using these compounds for organ perfusion and as clinical blood substitutes. We show by extensive morphological examination by light and electron microscopy, that perfluorodecalins produce no changes in the ultrastructure of the liver. PFS that leave the liver and also contain iodine or bromine atoms are radiopaque oxygen solvents useful as diagnostic agents and in microvascular research under various physiological conditions.

Muscular subaortic stenosis

Abstract A boy one year of age presented the features of aortic stenosis with a systolic gradient of 40 mm. Hg across the aortic valve. At surgery with the chest open a systolic gradient of 35 mm. Hg was measured across the pulmonic valve. No operable lesion was found. The child died postoperatively. Autopsy revealed striking ventricular hypertrophy and a ring of muscular hypertrophy obstructing the outflow of the left ventricle. The right ventricle was normally formed. The suggested diagnosis was congenital idiopathic hypertrophy and its relation to asymmetric hypertrophy was raised. Similar reported cases are reviewed. The difficulty and importance of differentiating muscular subaortic stenosis from congenital aortic and subaortic stenosis are stressed.

Localization of right to left shunts with an intravascular polarographic anode sensitive to ascorbic acid

Abstract The development of an intravascular polarographic anode which detects ascorbic acid is reported and its value in detecting and localizing right to left shunts is demonstrated.