Acrylamide polymerization: new method for determining the oxygen content in blood.
A new principle for determining the oxygen content of 0.1-milliliter blood samples has been developed, based on measurement of the delay in gelation during copolymerization of acrylamide and bisacrylamide initiated by free radicals. The logarithm of this time interval is linearly proportional to the oxygen content of the blood sample over the range 0 to 22 milliliters of oxygen per 100 milliliters of whole blood. Physiological variations of pH and pCO(2) do not affect the sensitivity of the assay.