A rapid electrochemical technic for measuring carbon dioxide content of blood.

An electrochemical technic for measuring carbon dioxide (C02) content in whole blood has been devisedand evaluated. The method requires a membrane-covered pH electrode for the CO2 measurements. This electrode system permits rapid determination of CO2 content in blood samplesof less than 1 ml. The measurement is performed by hemolyzingand acidifying a bloodsample in sucha manner that the released CO2 goes into physical solution. The increase of tension caused by this physically dissolvedCO2 is measuredby exposingthe sample to a previouslycalibrated electrode. While useof the technic requires some compromisewith accuracy (standard deviation of replicate samples = 0.76 volume/100 ml. compared with 0.12 volume/100 ml. for the Van Slyke manometric procedure), its convenience may outweigh this consideration in certain routine applications.