CARDIAC INSUFFICIENCY IN THE VITAMIN E DEFICIENT RABBIT

Abstract

New Zealand White rabbits were placed on a vit. E deficient diet at 5 wks. of age. When the nutritional muscular dystrophy in these animals had become well advanced, their resistance to the toxic effects of post. pituitary extracts and the cardiac glycosides was compared with that of normal, litter-mate controls. The dystrophic animals were killed by doses 1/3 to 1/2 as large as those which were well tolerated by the normals. Doses of Digoxin or Ouabain which proved fatal to the normal control animals prolonged the life of the E deficient rabbits by many hrs. or, in the majority of cases, several days beyond their predicted time of death and beyond the survival period of vit. E deficient controls. These findings, plus evidence of cardiac enlargement, as shown by X-ray studies, support the authors'' view that the sudden death of such dystrophic animals at or near the time of appearance of definite paralytic symptoms is the result of acute cardiac failure.