An electrical analyzer for carbon dioxide in respiratory gases

¹ Physiology Research Laboratory, Veterans Administration Hospital; and Departments of Medicine and Environmental Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

The analyzer described was de signed for measuring the concentration of carbon dioxide in the bag of gas from which the subject rebreathes in the "rebreathing method" for estimating the tension of carbon dioxide in mixed venous blood. Its merits are that it is cheap, robust, simple to construct and to service, easy to operate, and accurate when used by untrained operators. (Medical students, unacquainted with the instrument, and working with written instructions only, obtained at their first attempt results accurate to within ±0.36% [sd] of carbon dioxide.) The instrument is suitable for use by nurse or physician at the bedside, and also for classes in experimental physiology. Some discussion is presented of the theoretical principles underlying the design of analyzers employing thermal conductivity cells.