Investigation of substances which will substitute for or expand the plasma component of the blood has been intensive in recent years. The need of such a substance which can be stockpiled is obvious in the disturbed society of today, with the prevalent threat of atomic warfare and its ability to produce thousands of civilian casualties in a few seconds. One of the plasma expanders is polyvidone (polyvinyl pyrrolidone), a substance synthesized from acetylene and ammonia by Weese and Hecht.1 Polyvidone is currently produced under the trade name PVP-Macrose.* The present study is an attempt to evaluate polyvidone as a plasma expander.
As supplied by the manufacturer, polyvidone (PVP-Macrose) is an aqueous, strawcolored solution containing 3.5% polyvinyl pyrrolidone and small amounts of sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, and sodium bicarbonate. It has a pH range of 5.7 to 7.0, and its viscosity is twice that of water. The