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Implicit in the optimism about the prospects of the new test is this fact: Blood has become a cornerstone of modern medicine, more significant to treatment than many ''miracle'' drugs. In the United States, doctors prescribe some 12 million transfusions for about 3.5 million patients each year. ''It is a tossup between transfusions and anesthesia as to which has had a greater impact on surgery,'' she said. ''You could put people to sleep and still not do the procedures that you are able to do now if it weren't for blood transfusions. Moreover, the whole health care system could not have developed without blood.'' For example, over a three-month period, ''an extremely premature infant may receive more transfusions of blood and blood products than the sickest adult with a bleeding ulcer,'' Dr. Naomi L. C. Luban and Dr. Louise J. Keating wrote in a textbook published by the American Association of Blood Banks.

Dr. [Alan M. Lansing] said he did not expect Mr. [Murray P. Haydon] to develop a neurological problem. If he does, Dr. Lansing said, ''it would give us cause to pause.'' But Dr. Lansing said that if such a problem arose, he hoped ''it would not stop the series completely.'' The doctors examined Mr. Haydon's natural heart. According to Dr. Lansing, it appeared to the naked eye that Mr. Haydon's heart ''had a little more remaining heart muscle'' than did Mr. Schroeder's heart. A pathologist will examine the heart in the next few days to try to determine the cause of Mr. Haydon's cardiomyopathy. ''Boy this is a dull operation,'' one of the nurses who had participated in Mr. Schroeder's operation said, according to Dr. [Robert K. Jarvik]. ''That was great,'' Dr. Jarvik said, ''because nothing exciting is going on, there didn't seem to be any danger, any great risk here.''

The 52-year-old retired Federal worker and his family knew about those and many other risks when they agreed to enter the experiment last November. Dr. William C. DeVries, who implanted the Jarvik-7 artificial heart in Mr. [William J. Schroeder] at Humana Hospital Audubon, said he used such words such as ''vegetable'' to describe those risks to the Schroeders. ''Margaret has had several candid talks in the cafeteria or with hospital staff when people asked her about turning the machine off, and she has related them to me at some length,'' Dr. DeVries said. ''She is not ready at all to turn it off, and he hasn't given any indication that he is ready'' to die, he said, adding: Dr. DeVries is selecting a third artificial recipient at present. Mr. Schroeder's case has not put him off. He adds, ''I don't know what I could do differently the next time.''

A day earlier, [William J. Schroeder], a retired federal worker who will be 53 years old on Feb. 14, received a telephone call from President Reagan congratulating him on what had been called an amazing recovery. Schroeder complained to the president about delays in receiving his Social Security benefits and a check was delivered a few hours before the stroke

Although bisexuality is the most common risk factor among male AIDS cases in Haiti and blood transfusions the most common risk factor among women, Dr. [Warren Johnson] said, half the AIDS patients in the Caribbean country lacked evidence of the risk factors found among American cases. Both male and female AIDS patients reported more sexual activity in terms of the number of partners per year than did their siblings or friends who served as age and sex matched scientific controls. Although the data hints at heterosexual transmission, ''by itself it does not say AIDS is transmitted heterosexually,'' Dr. Johnson emphasized. Haitian AIDS patients reported receiving more intramusclar injections of medications from health workers than did those in the control group. The differences were statistically significant ''but the interpretation is not simple,'' Dr. Johnson said, because the data do not necessarily mean that the needles transmitted the AIDS virus. Among possible alternative explanations: AIDS patients might have had more injections as treatment for venereal disease or other conditions, or the patients might have been treated for the earliest symptoms of AIDS without realizing they were due to AIDS. ''The importance of female-to- male transmission in the spread of AIDS in the United States and the role, if any, of female prostitutes in this transmission have not been established,'' Centers for Disease Control officials have said. ''The number of these women presently infected is likely to be small. It is not known if such women would be as efficient as heterosexual or homosexual men in transmitting the AIDS virus.''

Some doctors believe that the only potential for the Jarvik-7 is as a bridge to an eventual natural heart transplant. They feel that few patients would be willing to be tethered to a machine the rest of their lives. Other physicians, particularly some heart transplant surgeons, are fearful such a use would hamper transplant programs. By keeping more such patients alive, artificial hearts would increase demand for human hearts and aggravate the existing shortage of organs. About one-third of patients die while waiting for a heart transplant because organs are not available in time. In any event, doctors on both sides would probably agree that the use of the mechanical heart as a bridge raises medical, ethical and bureaucratic complications. It also illustrates how the two technologies - natural transplants and artifical implants - can complement and conflict with each other. Mr. [Jack Wellman]'s heart gave way after he suffered a massive heart attack last November, had coronary bypass surgery and no longer responded to drugs. His only hope was a new heart. Although he met the criteria for an artificial organ, a human transplant was his doctors's first choice. But Mr. Wellman was four years older than the usual and arbitrary cutoff age of 50 for a heart transplant. The decisions on whether the age limitation would be waived and he would be accepted for a transplant, or whether he would be approved for an artificial heart, were up to two committees that were both appointed by Humana but deliberated independently. What if approval was given for both procedures and Mr. Wellman received an artificial heart because a human heart could not be found in time? Would his name then be dropped to the bottom of the waiting list for a human heart?

''That frustrates him and he tends not to say anything unless you confront him and make him say something,'' Dr. [William C. DeVries] says. ''Then it comes out, usually in a low voice.'' ''No,'' Mr. Schroeder said, nodding affirmatively, and, a moment later, ''Yes.'' ''No,'' she replies. ''That's not my style.''

The president of the American Medical Association, Dr. Joseph Boyle, has criticized the publicity as ''a Roman circus'' and has said the doctors are too concerned about making ''the deadline for the evening news.'' Dr. Boyle said he applauded Humana for financing the artificial heart research, although another A.M.A. official, Dr. David I. Olch, a member of the group's judicial council, has criticized the for-profit setting as wrong for the experiment. Dr. Boyle contends that such agreements are ''not in the best interests'' of patients because those who have never been the subject of publicity are not able to know what they are getting into. He says distractions associated with publicity might lead phycisians into compromising the care of their patients. The patient's interest should come first and the public's interest second to preserve privacy and scientific objectivity, Dr. Boyle says. The Courier-Journal in Louisville said in an editorial that the American Medical Association was trying to preserve ''the aspects of witch-doctor mystery that have clung to the medical profession for so long.'' It said the organization's attitude ''fits in with an ancient, mostly self-serving, tradition that belongs to another era.''

''The gift of life is the best present of all,'' Mrs. [William J. Schroeder] said. ''Bill is recovering but very slowly and at this time it is not appropriate for him to meet the press.'' ''He has some intermittent drooping of the right side of the face, which depends on the time of day you catch him,'' Dr. [Gary Fox] said. ''When he is tired and has been busy it seems to be a little more apparent and at other times it is not obvious at all.'' ''He knows where he is, sometimes,'' Dr. Fox said. ''He will answer correctly the name of the President of the United States, sometimes, and he will identify his family members correctly at times. All these things seem to vary from time to time. At times he will sort of refuse to answer any questions.''

Several doctors not connected with the case who saw a published picture of Mr. [William J. Schroeder] this weekend questioned Dr. [Allan M. Lansing]'s statement. These doctors said in interviews that it seemed to them that the right side of Mr. Schroeder's face was drooping as a result of the stroke. Dr. Lansing said today that when Mr. Schroeder tires, the right side of his face sometimes droops. ''When he is alert and fresh, it is very difficult to detect,'' the doctor said. If clots had been were present in Mr. Schroeder's body and the radioactive platelets had settled on them, ''hot spots'' would have showed on the scan. But there were none in Mr. Schroeder's case