ACUTE EXPERIMENTAL HEART FAILURE PRODUCED BY INTRAVENOUS GUM ACACIA INFUSION

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Abstract
This paper describes some of the cardiovascular changes produced in anaesthetized dogs by slow, continuous, intravenous infusion of gum acacia solution. As the blood volume increased and the haematocrit fell, the cardiac output and heart size increased. The right and left auricular pressures rose slowly at first, then more rapidly as the venous system became more distended. A point was reached at which the heart, unable to cope with the ever-increasing load, began to fail. The intracardiac pressures and cardiac size increased rapidly; cardiac arrhythmia developed, and death followed within half an hour. Observations comparable to those in clinical congestive heart failure included the following: a greatly enlarged heart, high intracardiac pressures, hepatic engorgement, occasionally peripheral oedema, maintenance of arterial blood pressure until frank decompensation occurred, and decreased urinary flow coinciding with the reduced cardiac output.