Studies of congenital heart disease. II. The pressure and oxygen content of blood in the right auricle, right ventricle and pulmonary artery in control patients, with observations on the oxygen saturation and source of pulmonary "capillary

The venous catheter of Cournand and Ranges (1) permits the measurement of pressure and oxy-gen content of blood in the pulmonary artery, right ventricle, and right auricle of patients with con-genital heart disease. To interpret the data so obtained, it is necessary to be cognizant of the variations in these measurements that occur in patients without congenital cardiac defects. The present report deals with the findings in a group of control patients. METHODS AND MATERIAL The procedures of measuring oxygen consumption, of blood sampling, and of pressure recording in various parts of the right side of the heart have been described in detail in a previous paper (2). The oxygen content of bloo