Volume 97, Number 1, Page 253

The Invention and Development of Blood Gas Analysis Apparatus

John W. Severinghaus, M.D., F.R.C.A., Dr.Med.H.C.

Web Figure 1: Richard Stow, PhD, (1916-), Department of Physical Medicine, Ohio State Univ, Inventor of the Pco₂ electrode

Web Figure 2: Poul Astrup, MD, (1915-2000), University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In response to the need to measure arterial Pco2 during the 1952 polio epidemic, he invented an equilibration method using only a tonometer and pH electrode, and arranged for the device to be made available commercially. With his student and associate Ole Siggaard Andersen, the device was miniaturized, and widely used from 1958 until about 1970. They introduced the concept and definition of Base Excess, and later of Standard Base Excess (a value relating to the in-vivo total extracellular fluid acid base status.

Web Figure 3: FJW Roughton, PhD, Cambridge (1899-1972). Discoverer of carbonic anhydrase in 1932. He persuaded Severinghaus and others to determine the precise shape of the human oxygen dissociation curve hoping to fit the Adair equation to it. Ultimately, this proved impossible, because the Adair equation cannot take account of the shape and affinity changes of the hemoglobin molecule during saturation and desaturation.

Web Figure 4: Leland Clark showing John Severinghaus his invention of a glucose electrode about 1980.