Experimental heart failure in guinea pigs is associated with a significant, severity-dependent depletion of ventricular norepinephrine stores.
Constriction of the ascending aorta in the guinea pig resulted in ventricular hypertrophy and congestive heart failure. In animals with heart failure which were killed 5 to 40 days after constriction, the norepinephrine stores in both ventricles were strikingly reduced; the extent of reduction was related to the severity of the constriction.
Spann et al. (Fri,) studied this question.