COMPARISON OF ARTERIAL AND ARTERIALIZED VENOUS CONCENTRATIONS OF PROPOFOL DURING INFUSION OF PROPOFOL

Seven patients received a series of low-dose propofol infusions designed to produce three successive pseudo-steady states of arterial blood concentration: 0.06, 0.17 and 0.43-mu-g ml-1. Arterial and arterialized venous blood samples were obtained simultaneously at the end of each infusion. The results indicate that 95% of the arterialized venous concentrations may be expected to lie within 1 +/- 43% of the corresponding arterial concentration, or -5 +/- 35% if one set of measurements with poor agreement between duplicate aliquots is omitted.