Effect of hypothermia on ventilatory response to carbon dioxide inhalation and carbon dioxide infusion in dogs

Abstract

Some respiratory and circulatory responses to carbon dioxide stress during ice-water immersion hypothermia were studied in 13 dogs. Stresses were imposed by increasing the carbon dioxide tension of the inspired gas in eight animals and by intravenous infusion of gaseous carbon dioxide in five other animals. It was found that when compensation is made for the depressed ventilation exhibited at low body temperature, animals responded to the carbon dioxide stresses in essentially the same manner in the hypothermic as in the normothermia state. However, the responses are of a lower order of magnitude. Submitted on November 19, 1959