Heart irregularities, resulting from the inhalation of low percentages of chloroform vapour, and their relationship to ventricular fibrillation / by A. Goodman Levy and Thomas Lewis.
- Levy, A. Goodman (Alfred Goodman)
- Date:
- [1912]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Heart irregularities, resulting from the inhalation of low percentages of chloroform vapour, and their relationship to ventricular fibrillation / by A. Goodman Levy and Thomas Lewis. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![[Reprinted from “* Heart.” Vol. III, No. 1, October 30, 1911. ] HEART IRREGULARITIES, RESULTING FROM THE INHALA- TION OF LOW PERCENTAGES OF CHLOROFORM VAPOUR, AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION. By A. GOODMAN LEVY anp THOMAS LEWIS.* (From University College Hospital Medical School). Introduction. Tue following research was undertaken with a view to the further elucidation of certain cardiac phenomena, originally observed by one of us in connection with the administration of low percentages of chloroform to cats, and des- cribed in the form of a preliminary communication to the Physiological Society.4. In this paper a peculiar form of blood pressure curve was described, which is characterised by rapid heart action, high or medium blood pressure, and certain fluctuations and irregularities which are made evident by reason of the inertia of the mercury column in the Ludwig’s manometer. This peculiar form of curve was found to occur quite commonly under chloroform administered at a lower percentage strength than 1 per cent., or thereabouts ; and it is necessary to emphasise the point that it was obtained with great frequency in animals which had not had a large initial dose of the anesthetic, and that it was not seen when the animals were under the full influence of the chloroform ; it may be added, in confirmation of its frequent incidence, that it was readily obtained in the five experiments which form the basis of the present paper. The significance of this irregularity was deduced from its uniform ap- pearance immediately before the occurrence of heart failure as a result of fibrillation of the ventricles, a condition which was shown to occur in certain isolated instances in the course of a series of experiments carried out in another investigation upon cats under the influence of chloroform. Certain other irregularities, characterised by a regular intermission of the heart beat, were also frequently observed and appeared to be conditioned by the adminis- tration of a somewhat less rarified proportion of vapour. It was further demonstrated that fibrillation of the ventricles could be induced in a large proportion of cases by the intravenous injection, under light chloroform anesthesia, of small doses of adrenalin chloride, a drug which does not have a like effect under full chloroform anzsthesia or under any other ordinary experimental conditions ; and that, when the cardiac * Working under the tenure of a Beit Memorial Research Fellowship.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33430640_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
