EFFECT OF EXPERIMENTAL CARDIAC INFARCTION ON RESPONSE TO DIGITALIS

Abstract

In 1925 a study was published by one of us (Dr. Gold¹) on the tolerance of the cat to ouabain in the presence of coronary occlusion. It was found that within periods up to twenty-four hours after extensive ligation of coronary vessels animals required on the average as much ouabain to cause death as did normal animals. These results were confirmed in a recent study (1934) by Bellet, Johnston and Schecter,² in which the drug was digitalis, the interval between the ligation and the testing was thirty minutes and the animal used was the dog. These authors extended their study to include chronic experiments, and from them they found that four days after the ligation the tolerance to digitalis had diminished by about 23 per cent of normal but that in from six weeks to six months some recovery of tolerance had taken place (tolerance being reduced about