Studies on the Stimulating Effects of Adrenaline and Noradrenaline on Respiration in Man

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Abstract
Adrenaline infused intravenously at a rate of 0.15 μg/kg/min increased the ventilation and CO2‐elimination by a maximum of 45% in experiment on man. Since adrenaline increased the CO2 tension and decreased the pH in the plasma of arterial blood, the respiratory increase after adrenaline was assumed to depend, at least in part, on an increased CO2‐production of metabolic origin. About half of the increase in CO2‐production was estimated to be due to raised oxygen consumption and the remaining half to have come from the plasma and tissue bicarbonate. The reduction of tissue bicarbonate was to a large part caused by an increased lactic acid and FFA concentration. The stimulating effect on respiratin of noradrenaline was initially associated with a decrease in plasma pCO2 and an increased plasma pH. The initial increase in CO2‐elimination which took place was assumed ro result from washing out of CO2 The possibility that noradrenaline had stimulated O2‐sensitive chemoreceptors is discussed. In a later stage noradrenaline probably stimulated the respiration through an increased oxygen consumption and CO2‐production.