Hyperventilation-induced changes of the blood picture.

In a controlled study of 11 male volunteers the following changes (means +/- SD) were observed in venous blood during (D) and 75 min after (A) a period of 20 min of voluntary hyperventilation in comparison with before (B) hyperventilation (P values referring to the difference between D and B) erythrocyte count 5.18 +/- 0.17 X 10(6) (B), 5.70 +/- 0.21 X 10(6) (D) (P less than 0.001), and 5.18 +/- 0.16 X 10(6)/microliter (A); hemoglobin 15.7 +/- 0.6 (B), 17.2 +/- 0.7 (D) (P less than 0.001), and 15.8 +/- 0.6 g/dl (A); centrifuged hematocrit 46.6 +/- 1.0 (B), 50.4 +/- 1.7 (D) (P less than 0.001), and 47.0 +/- 1.8% (A). The platelets increased from 159 +/- 30 X 10(3) (B) to 205 +/- 40 X 10(3) (D) (P less than 0.001) and returned to 157 +/- 26 X 10(3)/microliter (A). The leukocytes (WBC) were 4,210 +/- 630 (B), 6,220 +/- 1,660 (D) (P less than 0.001), and 6,190 +/- 1,870/microliter (A) (P less than 0.002, as compared with B). The rise of WBC during hyperventilation was mainly due to a 83% increase of lymphocytes, whereas a 93% increase of neutrophil leukocytes accounted for the increased WBC 75 min posthyperventilation. The increase of the ratio of band forms to segmented neutrophils from 9 (B) to 19% (A) (P less than 0.01) indicates that band forms were released from the bone marrow. The results show that WBC and platelets can be mobilized by hyperventilation by as yet unidentified mechanisms.