Blood, 1955, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp. 646-649.
© 1955 American Society of Hematology, Inc.
The Measurement of the Survival of Human
Erythrocytes by In Vivo Tagging with Cr51
DONALD A. SUTHERLAND 1 and
MARY SUE MCCALL 1
1 Radioisotope Unit of the Veterans Administration Hospital, and the Departments of Pathology and Medicine of The Southwestern Medical School, of The University of Texas, Dallas, Texas.
1. The deviation from a rectilinear form of the complex curvilinear curves of
erythrocyte decay produced by the in vitro tagging of the cells with Na2Cr51O4
is not a result of the in vitro tagging procedure per se.
2. Human erythrocytes can be tagged its vivo with Na2Cr51O4. One can determine the in vivo survival of such cells if the gamma detecting unit is sufficiently
sensitive and the amount of radiochromium used is sufficient. Such decay curves
are similar to those produced by the in vitro Cr51 tagging method.
3. The in vivo method permits a study of the life span of erythrocytes in patients who have a very active cold agglutinin or in whom the cells are easily
hemolyzed by mechanical trauma.
Submitted on October 5, 1954
Accepted on December 4, 1954
