# An Answer for Cygnus

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Posted by Gretchen [gretchen18] on November 29, 1999 at 15:26:04 {DGglKT6Uj2n75eubIkxERFJ37vagLY}:

You asked me if I was familiar with side effects from the new possible synthetic blood substitutes made from perfluorocarbons...
I asked one of my professors (who is an M.D.) about it today. He told me there are a few major problems, but that they are on the verge of being eliminated.
Apparently the two problems are this:
1) The perfluorocarbons can often be removed too rapidly from the circulatory system to be of much use for long term benefits. This means that the body would eliminate them too fast to use them efficiently.
2) They tend to undergo a retention of sorts in the reticuloendothelial tissue system (RES). This would be your blood vessels, lymph vessels, bone marrow, spleen, liver, lungs and other connective tissues like tendons, ligaments, etc. Some organs in this system form new blood cells, others destroy them and still others dispose of wastes from the blood.
When the perfluorocarbon residues are retained in the system for too long you start to have problems like lower resistance to infection, anemia (lack of red blood cells), and other symptoms.
However, he also informed me that much progress has been made and that they have somehow altered the chemicals so that they have a lower residual time and that it has been progressively decreasing with new clinical trials.
It's a pretty new concept... but doctors are hoping that it will give those people (like the Witnesses) whose religion forbids blood transfusions an alternative to dying.
Anything else I might be able to find out for you?
~Gretchen

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