Blood volume, body water, and circulation time in patients with advanced neoplastic diseases.

In 33 patients with far advanced neoplastic diseases, 47 studies of fluid compartments were performed, utilizing measurements of total body water by the antipyrine method, plasma and blood volume by the T1824 method, and circulation time from arm-to-ear and lung-to-ear by a modification of the oximeter-dye technic. Though the studies were performed as nearly simultaneously as possible, no correlations could be made between the measurements obtained. A relative hypervolemia was observed in the majority of the fourteen patients with leukemia. The circulation times appeared to be more rapid in the patients studied than in normal individuals. Body water was observed to be normal except in the presence of clinical edema, no unusual variations being related to the severity of the diseases present.