A comparison of methods for the measurement of cardiac output and blood oxygen content.

A comparison has been made between the recently introduced thermal dilution method for measurement of cardiac output and the standard dye dilution technique. Two relatively new methods of measurement of blood oxygen content, one involving the measurement of oxygen tension after release of oxygen by carbon monoxide, and the other the measurement of current flow upon reduction of oxygen in a galvanic cell, have been compared with a standard indirect method of measurement of blood oxygen content. All three new methods fulfilled the criteria of accuracy and simplicity and compared favourably with the standard methods. Of the two new methods for measurement of oxygen content, that involving reduction of oxygen in a galvanic cell was superior by virtue of compactness and speed of operation.