This content is PDF only. Please click on the PDF icon to access.
Abstract
This report describes a method for estimation of relative retinal blood flow in monkeys, based, on dye dilution curves constructed from densitometry measurements on fluorescing vessels in fundus angiograms. With this technique, first described by Hickam and Frayser5 we have studied the effect of hyper-and hypocapnia. Increased Paco2 was found to cause expansion of the vascular volume and shortening of the mean circulation time, indicating substantial increase in-flow, related to the degree of elevation of this blood gas and paralleling its effect on the cerebral blood fiow. The opposite effect is observed in hypocapnic animals. The changes in the shape of the dilution curves, in hypercapnia or hypocapnia are analyzed. The final question of whether the primary change is affected by pH or (HCO-3)remains to he answered