Abstract

EFFECT OF POSTURE ON VENOUS MEASURED VELOCITY, WITH 24NaCl BY H. PAYLING WRIGHT AND S. B. OSBORN From University College Hospital and Medical School Received October 28, 1951 The importance of posture in the venous return to the heart from the lower limbs in normal and pathological conditions has been for over a As as recognized noted century. early 1826, Piorry that the effect of gravity could in in the produce syncope subjects kept and that upright posture the attack was relieved when the Marshall Hall patient lay down. carried out animal (1832) experi- ments which showed that the venous return was, to a and great extent, dependent upon posture that the blood in the limbs was directly controlled In a clue to the mechanism by gravity. man, whereby blood is propelled from the lower limbs against the force of is the gravity given by presence of valves in the veins, an adaptation unnecessary in animals that have not assumed the upright gait. At the same time that these of control were concepts circulatory being the investigated, impor- tance of venous stasis as a factor in the onset of thrombosis was being For emphasized. many years experimental observations on