PLASMA AND BLOOD VOLUMES IN SEVERELY MALNOURISHED INFANTS

ABSTRACT. Zoumboulakis, D., Anagnostakis, D., Kiossoglou, K., Agathopoulos, A. and Tsenghi, C. (Department of Paediatrics, Athens University, Athens, Greece). Plasma and blood volumes in severely malnourished infants. Acta Wediatr Scand, 63: 507, 1974. —This study was carried out in order to gain some insight into the plasma and blood volume fluctuations in severely malnourished infants. By means of an isotope dilution technique and microhaematocrit measurements, plasma and blood volumes were studied in 18 severely malnourished infants, aged 5 to 20 months and in 5 healthy controls, aged 3 to 20 months. Both plasma and blood volumes were found to be considerably higher in the malnourished infants (79.22±14.5 ml/kg and 119±17.8 ml/kg, respectively) than those in the controls (51.6±6.8 and 76.4±7.7 mg/kg, respectively. The differences in both instances were statistically highly significant. When, however, plasma and blood volumes were expressed not by means of the actual body weight but per kg of the expected body weight for height, there were no significant differences between malnourished (50.6±9.4 ml/kg and 76.1±12.4 ml/kg respectively), and healthy infants (51.6±6.8 ml/kg and 76.4±7.7 ml/kg respectively). These results suggest that the absolute intravascular fluid volume, which plays an important role in maintaining normal homeostasis, is unchanged in malnutrition. Copyright © 1974, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserve