[On the pressure-volume relation of the central and the peripheral vascular bed of the low pressure system (author's transl)].

The effect of hemorrhage amounting 420 ml in relation to the behaviour of the pressures and volume of the intrathoracic and extrathoracic compartment was studied on 10 young male adults. The volume elasticity coefficient E' and the vascular compliance 1/E' of the intrathoracic, extrathoracic and the total circulation were calculated as a result of the change in pressure and volume after the 420 ml hemorrhage. The coefficient of the volume elasticity for the intrathoracic compartment was found to be 23 dyn-cm-minus 5, for the extrathoracic compartment 15 dyn-cm-minus 5 and for the total circulation 9 dyn-cm-minus 5. The compliance of the intrathoracic compartment was 0.8 ml/mm Hg/kg BW, that of the extrathoracic compartment was 1.2 ml/mm Hg/kg BW and that of the total circulation was 2.0 ml/mm Hg/kg BW. These findings support the thesis of the large distensibility of the intrathoracic compartment.