Response to exercise in dogs with cardiac denervation

Dogs with chronic cardiac denervation by the technic of regional neural ablation showed an unchanged capacity for work as measured by oxygen consumption. The relation of cardiac output to oxygen consumption during exercise remained unchanged from preoperational values. When the dogs started to run, the heart rate rose slowly over 1.5 min to reach a steady value proportional to the work performed. When exercise was stopped, the heart rate declined slowly. With mild exercise, the increase in cardiac output was mainly through stroke volume; with more severe exercise, increase in stroke volume and heart rate contributed equally, in contrast to the normal dog where the increase in rate predominates. Neither the pattern of the change in heart rate nor the plateau values were altered by adrenalectomy. The change in rate was not attributable to change in intravascular temperature. In an equivalent dose of base, norepinephrine caused tachycardia but little or no change in cardiac output, whereas epinephrine resulted in an increase in cardiac output with but a modest increase in heart rate.