Hematocrit-corrected Pulmonary Vascular Resistance

The diagnosis and evaluation of severity of pulmonary vascular disease rests on the invasive determination of a pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR). It is often overlooked that PVR is linearly related to the viscosity of the blood, which in turn is curvilinearly related to hematocrit. We propose a correction diagram for patients with anemia or with polycythemia. Based on a distensibility model of the pulmonary circulation, we show that magnitude...