HEMOCONCENTRATION AFTER ELECTRICALLY INDUCED CONVULSIONS IN MAN

Abstract

CONCENTRATION of the blood and decrease in plasma volume are known to develop during exercise.¹ In view of the fact that variations in water balance influence the activity of the cerebral cortex² and may also give rise to important changes in the body as a whole, it was considered desirable to investigate the occurrence of hemoconcentration during the violent muscular contractions of electrically induced convulsions. MATERIAL AND METHODS Fifty-five studies of hematocrit readings and 60 determinations of plasma protein were made before and after routine electroshock treatments on 10 patients. Six of the patients were men, and the range in age for all patients was 25 to 61 years; several had had previous shock therapy. In addition, 1 patient (case 11), a woman aged 59, was studied on 5 occasions on which convulsions were induced after she had received 42 units of curare ("intocostrin") intravenously. Samples of blood