Dimensions and volume of the carotid body in the adult cat, and their relation to the specific blood flow through the organ. A histological and morphometric study.

In perfusion-fixed preparations of the carotid body, morphological measurements were made on serial histological sections using an interactive image analysis system. The volume of the organ was found to be 0.247 +/- 0.092 mm3. This is considerably smaller than the previous estimates based on the measured postmortem wet weight. This means that the specific blood flow to the carotid body of 2,000 ml/min/100 g using the previously obtained values for the organ's total blood flow and postmortem wet weight may be an underestimate of the true value.