Differences in drug delivery with peripheral and central venous injections: normal perfusion.

The differences between central venous (CV) and peripheral venous (PV) injections with respect to drug delivery times and peak concentrations in the left ventricle are examined. In this drug-delivery model, anesthetized dogs (n = 7) received both PV and CV injections of a radionuclide tracer. Measurements of radioactivity levels were made over each ventricle during normal perfusion. There was no statistically significant difference in left ventricular delivery times or peak radioactivity levels between the two different routes. When delivery time was corrected for variations in flow rate, a small but statistically significant difference was seen, the CV route being faster than the PV route (P less than 0.05). The magnitude of the observed difference for normal perfusion (2 seconds) is unlikely to be of clinical significance.