Compliance of the peripheral capacitance vessels in patients with congestive heart failure

A method for measuring compliance of the peripheral capacitance vessels is reported, and the values of compliance in patients with congestive heart failure are compared with those in normal subjects. Peripheral venous compliance and right brachial venous pressure in both patients with congestive heart failure and in normal subjects, when plotted graphically, showed a relationship described by many hyperbolic curves. The mean value of compliance of the peripheral capacitance vessels in patients with congestive heart failure was only half that in normal subjects. This difference was statistically significant (P less than 0.001). After the congestion in the patients with congestive heart failure disappeared following treatment with digitalis and other drugs, the values of compliance became nearly the same as in normal subjects. It seems that the increase of compliance of the peripheral capacitance vessels is not due to an organic change but to a functional change of the vessels caused by distention.