The circulatory and respiratory changes occurring during the first 5 min. of hypoxia were studied in unanawsthetized rabbits. Mild degrees of hypoxia produced an increase in ventilation in the rabbit, without eliciting a detectable circulatory response. The early circulatory effects consisted of bradycardia, a rise in mean arterial pressure and a fall in cardiac output, indicating predominant systemic vasoconstriction. The magnitude of the bradyeardia and rise in arterial pressure were related to the fall in arterial 02 saturation. Atropine or vagotomy reduced or abolished the bradycardia, but greatly accentuated the rise in blood pressure. Denervation of the carotid baroreceptors and chemoreceptors almost abolished the bradyeardia and diminished the rise in blood pressure.IN the first few minutes after induction of acute hypoxia most mammalian species develop tachycardia, a moderate rise in mean arterial pressure and an increase in ventilation. It is generally agreed that the role of the arterial chemoreceptors is of paramount importance in the early respiratory drive during oxygen lack [Bjurstedt, 1946;Otis, 1947 and1949]. Up till recently the tachycardia which develops in the early phase of hypoxia has also been considered to be of chemoreceptor origin. Recent observations in dogs on the effects of stimulation of the arterial chemoreceptors by perfusion with venous blood cast considerable doubt on this interpretation, since these procedures usually produce bradyeardia [Bernthal, Greene and Revzin, 1951; Neil, 1956;Scott, 1958 and.The unanaesthetized rabbit develops during the first few minutes of hypoxia a pronounced bradycardia rather than the usual tachyeardia and some rise in arterial pressure. The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an analysis of the mechanism of this early circulatory response to acute hypoxia.
METHODSUnanaesthetized rabbits were used in these experiments, except when otherwise stated. The operative techniques were carried out under local anaesthesia and included tracheotomy, central ear artery cannulation and right atrial catheterization