Abstract
During hemorrhagic hypotension in dogs, plasma catecholamine level was found to be elevated due to increased secretion of catecholamine from the sympathoadrenal system (1, 2). In rabbits, depletion of norepinephrine and increment of epinephrine in the left ventricle were observed after prolonged hemorrhagic hypotension, and the correlation of myocardial norepinephrine and cardiac performance was suggested (3). On the other hand, metabolic disturbances in shock state were also much discussed (4, 5). Therefore, it seems to be interesting to investigate how elevated plasma catecholamine changes myocardial catecholamine level, and whether prolonged hemorrhagic hypotension induces certain changes to the myocardial norepinephrine synthesis.
