RESPIRATORY AND CARDIO-VASCULAR CHANGES IN THE CAT DURING CONVULSIONS OF EXPERIMENTAL ORIGIN

Abstract

Graphic records of blood pressure and respiration were taken during the administration of carefully graded convulsant doses of absinthe or camphor monobromide to cats [no. not stated]. Immediately following intravenous injection of the drug there was a fall in blood pressure. During the convulsion itself, in otherwise intact animals, there was usually a rise in blood pressure. When the spinal cord was transected as high as the level of T3, blood pressure did not rise during the clonic activity of the skeletal muscles. When curare was administered, blood pressure fell on injection of either drug and did not rise subsequently, indicating the importance of the skeletal muscles in the production of the rise of systemic blood pressure during the period of a clonic convulsion. In conditions of low systemic blood pressure it is difficult to elicit clonic convulsions, but they immediately appeared at the same dosage if the blood pressure was raised by the injection of adrenalin or by mechanical compression of the abdominal aorta. Respiration was accelerated at a lower dosage of absinthe or camphor monobromide than the minimal convulsive dose.