Analysis of the cardiovascular response to standardized polymicrobial peritonitis experimental model

The aim of this work is to study the response of pigs to an inflammatory insult, consisting of intraperitoneal instillation of autologous feces, by monitoring them from the induction of sepsis to the full development of septic shock. The response was measured not only with standard hemodynamic variables, like mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), cardiac output (CO), but also with indices able to reflect vascular properties, such as the PP amplification, the Windkessel time constant τ, the harmonic distortion. Two distinct vascular responses to the insult up to the full development of septic shock, were identified, in an apparently homogeneous cohort. Indeed, the insult, the end point and the maneuvers were standardized according to factors that are typically used in sepsis trials. The results of the present study suggest that the cardiac response may play a greater role in one group of animals than in the other to compensate for a larger vascular alteration. However, further research is necessary to investigate the potential relationship between these trends and the administered therapy or inflammatory biomarkers.Clinical Relevance- These findings show how the response to an inflammatory response can produce different cardiovascular trends and this information can be used to guide the therapy.