Equilibrium distribution of radioxenon in tissue: xenon-hemoglobin association curve

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Abstract
In vitro and in vivo studies were made of the equilibrium distribution of radioxenon in various organs and tissues of the dog and the xenon uptake compared with a water standard. Tissue-blood partition coefficients were calculated. The radioxenon-hemoglobin association curve was determined for dog and human hemoglobin and methemoglobin. The uptake of radioxenon by blood, due in particular to xenon-hemoglobin affinity, was appreciably greater than uptake either by water or by most other body tissues. Fat and brain were notable exceptions. Consequently, tissue-blood partition coefficients were about eight for fat, one for brain, and significantly less than one for other tissues studied. Acceptable accuracy for blood flow determinations with a radioxenon inert gas diffusion method would seem to depend on the use of a partition coefficient correction in turn corrected at least for the existing hemoglobin concentration. The uptake of xenon by hemoglobin had the characteristics of a solubility or a quasi-solubility phenomenon. The problem of the nature of the interaction is apparently not resolved. Submitted on June 19, 1961