Few studies relating to cardiac output in the presence of congestive failure have been made by acceptable technical methods. Lauter,1 employing the direct Fick method in 3 cases of cardiac decompensation, found markedly subnormal values for the cardiac output and especially for the output per beat. Employing a similar technic, McGuire, Hauenstein and Shore2 studied 5 cases of organic heart disease. Of these cases, decompensation was severe in 1, mild in 2 and slight in 1. In the case of severe failure the cardiac output was normal, a finding we have rarely encountered in patients subsequently studied by the acetylene method.
Harrison3 investigated the cardiac output with the three sample acetylene method in 19 cases of congestive failure. He concluded: Persons with congestive heart failure may, and often do, have diminished circulatory minute volume. There is no correlation between the clinical state on the one hand and