The Journal of surgical research
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Hepatic hypoxia during resuscitation and other critically ill conditions is a serious cause of acute hepatic failure. Measurement of the ATP concentration is a sensitive method to evaluate the extent of hypoxic damage in the liver. Hypothermia has been shown to attenuate organ injury in hypoxia. Our aim was to evaluate the effects of moderate hypothermia on the hepatic energy metabolism in rats during gradual hypoxia using (31)P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. ⋯ During gradual hypoxia, beta-ATP decreased, P(i) increased, and pH(i) decreased in the rat liver, depending on the oxygen concentration. These changes were more prominent in the NT group than in the HT group. We conclude that moderate hypothermia effectively protects high energy phosphoenergetic metabolites in rat liver during gradual hypoxia as compared to normothermia.
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Strangulation obstruction of the small bowel is associated with local and systemic circulatory changes, local loss of fluid, and damage of the strangulated bowel segment. We wanted to examine to which extent these changes can be prevented by intravenous fluid administration. ⋯ The administration of large amounts of fluid to animals with strangulation obstruction normalized the arterial pressure and improved the intestinal blood flow thus minimizing damage to the intestinal mucosa.