title: Postmortem evaluation of rabbit aqueous humor partial pressure of carbon dioxide, total carbon dioxide, bicarbonate, partial pressure of oxygen and ionized calcium levels.
abstract: The aqueous humors of 100 freshly enucleated rabbit eyes were assessed within 10 min postmortem by taking samples in the last stage of corneal dissection following the Dikstein-Maurice procedure. Aqueous levels of partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2) averaged 58.2 +/- 8.5 mm Hg to give calculated tCO2 and bicarbonate levels of 34.9 +/- 2.2 mEq/l and 30.0 +/- 3.4 mM/l, respectively. The pH and ionized Ca2+ levels averaged 7.39 and 1.50 mM while partial pressure of oxygen (pO2) values were variable (31.5 +/- 23.6 mm Hg). The pH showed an inverse correlation to pCO2 values, and Ca2+ increased as pCO2 increased. O2 levels tended to decrease as CO2 increased. The results suggest that significant hypercapnia and hypoxia of the eye fluids can occur even within 10 min postmortem for an enucleated globe at room temperature.
authors.affiliation: University of Waterloo, School of Optometry, Ont., Canada.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Doughty
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001082:Aqueous Humor / Q000737:chemistry*; D001639:Bicarbonates / Q000032:analysis*; D002118:Calcium / Q000032:analysis*; D002245:Carbon Dioxide / Q000032:analysis*; D015353:Eye Enucleation; D005260:Female; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis*; D010313:Partial Pressure; D011817:Rabbits
chemical_list: D001639:Bicarbonates; D002245:Carbon Dioxide; D010100:Oxygen; D002118:Calcium