Hypertonic saline dextran resuscitation fails to improve cardiac function in neonatal and senescent burned guinea...

Our previous studies suggested that the greater diminution in burn-induced cardiac contractile function which occurs in young and elderly subjects compared with adult subjects is related to differences in intracellular calcium availability to the myofilaments. We recently showed that improved cardiac function after hypertonic saline dextran (HSD) resuscitation from burn injury in adults was related to enhanced intracellular calcium content. In the study presented here, 126 hearts isolated from neonatal, adult, and senescent guinea pigs were used to evaluate age-related differences in cardiac contractile response to HSD resuscitation from burn injury. Scald burn was induced in 30 adult, 18 neonatal, and 30 senescent guinea pigs; within each age group, half of the burned animals were resuscitated with lactated Ringer's (Parkland formula, 4 mL/kg/% burn for 24 hours); half received an initial bolus of HSD (4 mL/kg, IV) plus lactated Ringer's (1 mL/kg/% burn for 24 hours). An additional 16 animals from each age group served as sham burn controls.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)