It was intended that the present article should· deal with the complete literature of the field, published from June 1954 to June 1955, but unfor tunately it does not do so. Thus, papers appearing in journals which have been delayed in delivery could not be included, and with all probability others have simply been overlooked, for which apologies are extended.There seem to be as many definitions of peripheral circulation as there are workers in the field. The definition here preferred covers a discussion of all papers dealing with physiological aspects of the circulatory system with exclusion of those with bearing on the heart and its performance, which are dealt with elsewhere in this book. Pharmacological and therapeutic studies are not discussed here, interesting as they may be. Further, to avoid overlap ping, brief preliminary reports are generally omitted, as the studies can and will be dealt with more satisfactorily in future reviews when they have been published in full detail.
ApPARATUS AND METHODSPressure and pulse wave measurements.-New manometers, suitable for measuring pressures (190) or pressure differences (or both) (37, 333) have been described, with one of which (333) the author has very favourable personal experience. In man the left atrium has been punctured percutane ously (43, 355) allowing a measurement of the pressures in this and adjacent parts of the cardiovascular system. Also the pulmonary artery can be punc tured for pressure measurements, either percutaneously (356) or by endos copy from the main bronchus (141). This may be of great advantage as it is evident from another study (457) that the movements of the usual cathe ters, caused by the beating of the heart, can produce significant artifacts in the recorded pressure curves. Further, a simple and convenient procedure for arterial catheterisation, useful both for obtaining samples and pressure records, has been worked out (34). Schroeder's method for pressure measure ment has been compared with a direct recording of arterial pressure (176), and at more pronounced pressure changes the error is rather big. Some other more or less simple techniques for continuous recording of pressure variations (17,53,204) and mean pressure (25) are described and also methods for evaluation of the pressure in smaller arterial vessels (�2, 277). The techniques for indirect measurement of arterial pressure in rats has been critically ana lyzed, and a new modification of satisfactory exactness is described (351) . On the whole, in the last ten years the enthusiasm for new, more or less intricate ways to measure arterial blood pressure has been so great that one I The following abbreviations have been used in this chapter: VDM (Vasopressor material); VEM (Vasoexcitor material); ATP (adenosinetriphosphate).
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