THE EFFECT OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF ERGOTAMINE ON THE CIRCULATORY RESPONSE TO EPINEPHRINE

¹ From the Pharmacology Laboratory, Department of Materia Medica and Therapeutics, University of Michigan

1. In anesthetized, vagotomized dogs, evidence of splanchnic constriction to small doses of epinephrine (0.00005 to 0.0001 mgm.) intravenously administered, is removed by small doses of ergotamine (0.1 mgm. or less), the exact amount required varying in different animals.

2. After such splanchnic paralysis, there is still a rise in pressure after epinephrine injections, which rise may be somewhat less than, equal to, or actually greater than that seen before ergotamine administration.

3. This rise is believed to be due in part to cardiac stimulation, and in part to va. soconstriction in the skin and mucous membranes, whose vessels are more resistant to ergotamine paralysis than those of the splanchnic region.

4. Doses of ergotamine removing the splanchnic vasoconstriction to doses of epinephrine of the order mentioned above do not prevent cardiac acceleration to the same doses of epinephrine.

5. The belief is expressed that greater emphasis should be placed on the ability of epinephrine to cause a redistribution of the blood, rather than on its ability to produce a rise in blood pressure.

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