Standard Experimental Shock and Post-Mortem Cardiac Arrest

¹ From the Department of Applied Physiology, The Royal College of Surgeons, London, England

Rats were subjected to standard shock by repeated bleedings, of a volume which lowered the blood pressure to 20 mm Hg, then reinfused. The blood pressure readings on reinfusion declined arithmetically, allowing a measure of prediction. The susceptibility to shock of an individual animal and degrees of shock existing at any time can be ascertained. Extrapolation of the blood-pressure decline beyond the point of death reveals that cardiac arrest coincides with the point where the zero blood pressure level is cut. It is thus suggested that the fall in the blood pressure during shock may be the result of cardiac dysfunction.