Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for measuring blood volume of a living being using fluorescent dye. The present invention greatly simplifies the performance of a blood volume measurement by utilizing a novel fluorescent tracer. An injection and sampling kit for the performance of an indicator dilution measurement, comprising a) a labelled fluorescent injectate, and b) a plurality of collection cassettes, and a calibration kit comprising a plurality of calibrated standard cassettes of identical conformation to the cassettes in b), corresponding to known dilutions of the injectate (a).

Abstract: Pharmaceutical compositions and methods are presented for creating a ternary structure involving a fluorescent molecule, an intermediate carrier molecule, and a larger protein or polymer with a binding site receptive to the intermediate molecule or fluorescent/intermediate complex. The resulting ternary system improves the binding stability of the fluorescent dye to the protein, both in-vivo and in-vitro. This improved stability results in a longer half-life in medical use, enabling improved qualitative and quantitative use of the dye.