Determination of the Circulation Time in Children by the Decholin Method

Abstract

Determination of the circulation time has long been known as one of the methods employed for investigating the circulation, a i d it has been in use among scientists for some time. It is only during the last two decades, however, that the technique has been simplified sufficiently to allow the test to be brought into routine use in hospitals and in private practice. There are at present several simple and accurate methods from which to choose. A large series of investigations has been carried out on adults, some in perfectly good health and some suffering from ailments that could be expected to affect the circulatory system. Determination of the circulation time has been found of value especially in the diagnosis of retardation of the blood flow, in the therapeutic guidance of circulatory insufficiency, and in the early recognition of conditions of non-cardiac origin (Efulmonary dyspnoea, obstruction of the superior or inferior vena cava, anasarca of hypoproteinaemia, etc.) .Through the discovery of a new sphere of use for determinations of the circulation time more attention has been paid to them in recent years, since it has been found that a veno-arterial shunt can be demonstrated by this method. When this is present, a short circuit takes place in the blood circulation and the circulation time is reduced. A similar shunt mechanism is found quite frequently in cases of congenital vitium cordis and a number of such cases have been described ( TARR and COLLABORATORS 1932,