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Circulatory Effects of Angiotensin, Levarterenol and Metaraminol in the Treatment of Shock

List of authors.
  • Vasant N. Udhoji, M.B., B.S.†,
  • and Max H. Weil, M.D., Ph.D.‡

THE rationale for the use of vasopressor agents in the treatment of shock is controversial. The principal objection to their use is that during shock, sympathetic and adrenergic activity is increased while the arterial vascular bed is already constricted. Hemodynamic measurements indicate that the arterial vascular resistance is usually high. Arteries and arterioles are constricted, particularly in splanchnic vascular beds.1 Since sympathomimetic drugs produce additional narrowing of the vessels it is postulated that their use results in further reduction of effective blood flow to vital organs, additional tissue ischemia and potentiation of shock. The search for nonadrenergic vasopressor agents led . . .

Funding and Disclosures

* From the Department of Medicine and Surgery and the Shock Research Unit, University of Southern California School of Medicine, and the Los Angeles County General Hospital.

Presented at the General Session of the American Federation of Clinical Research, Atlantic City, New Jersey, April 28, 1963.

Supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation, Incorporated, New York, and by a grant (HE-5570) from the National Heart Institute, United States Public Health Service.

§ Kindly supplied as Levophed by Winthrop Laboratories, New York City.

¶ Kindly supplied as Aramine by Merck Sharp and Dohme, West Point. Pennsylvania; and as Pressonex by Winthrop Laboratories, New York City.

∥ Kindly supplied as Hypertensin by Ciba Pharmaceutical Company, Summit, New Jersey.

Author Affiliations

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

†Research associate, Department of Medicine, University of Southern California School of Medicine.

‡Associate professor of medicine, University of Southern California School of Medicine; principal investigator, Shock Research Unit, Los Angeles County General Hospital.

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