Blood flow and oxygen consumption of the pregnant uterus

¹ Department of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine and Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals; Department of Physiology, Yale School of Medicine; and Department of Medicine, Harvard School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts

The 4-aminoantipyrine method was employed for measuring rate of blood flow per kilogram of tissue in the pregnant uterus of anesthetized goats. A uterine vein was cannulated, but no other manipulation or disturbance of the uterus occurred. Uterine blood flow was high in the nonpregnant uterus and in early pregnancy but fell to a plateau of 277 ml/kg/min. at midpregnancy. (A-V)O₂ was minimal in the first quarter of pregnancy and rose to a plateau also by midpregnancy. Rate of O₂ consumption per kilogram was relatively high in the nonpregnant uterus, fell to a minimal value in the first quarter of the gestational period, and rose again to a plateau of 10.1 ml/kg/ min. beginning at midpregnancy. All these values appeared to remain unchanged during the last half of gestation.