Rat intraperitoneal sepsis--a clinically relevant model.
The pathologic changes in septic shock, a disease state involving several hemodynamic and metabolic parameters, are not completely understood. Because research on animals can provide information vital to treating disease in humans, and because of the increasing constraints on clinical trials with humans, a clinically relevant animal sepsis model has been developed using adult male Sprague-Dawley rats. Sepsis was induced in large numbers of rats by IP injections of discrete quantities of live E coli organisms. The following elements were measured at specific times: MAP, CO, CVP, WBC, platelets, hemoglobin, hematocrit, PT, PTT, fibrinogen, clotting factors, glucose, blood gases, Ca++, Mg++, and TSP. The study shows that the model is easily replicated and relatively inexpensive, and that it can be used for detailed study in rats of several of the pathophysiological states characteristic of sepsis in humans.