Relationship of blood flow and myocardial Rb⁸⁶ clearance in right and left ventricles

¹ Departments of Medicine, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, and The University of Mississippi Schools of Medicine, Jackson, Mississippi

The rate of myocardial clearance of Rb⁸⁶ from arterial blood and the rate of coronary blood flow were studied simultaneously during a 10-min period of isotope infusion in dogs. In order to measure blood flow to the right and left ventricles separately using the Fick principle, venous blood was obtained from an anterior cardiac vein and from the coronary sinus. The relationship of myocardial blood flow and Rb⁸⁶ clearance was not detectably different in the right and left ventricles. The percentage error in predicting flow from clearance rose as the values increased. At rates of flow below 6 ml/g 10 min the mean error was 4.7%. From 6 to 12 ml/g 10 min the mean error was 10.0% in controls and 14.4% in a group with pulmonary embolism or obstruction of the pulmonary artery. Since the clearance technique does not require catheterization of a cardiac vein, this method can be used to study coronary blood flow under conditions approximating the undisturbed state.