Fig. 6. Long-term cardiovascular outcomes in animals with T2 SCI (12-week survival).
a Animals were randomized to receive no treatment (control, CON; n = 3), dobutamine (DOB, n = 4), or norepinephrine (NE, n = 3) treatment. Prior to injury, animals were instrumented with a Swan-Ganz catheter for thermodilution measures of cardiac output (QTD). Animals received a T2 SCI with hemodynamic management starting at 30 mins post-SCI and continued until 6 h post-SCI, at which point the Swan-Ganz catheter was removed. Animals were recovered and survived for 12 weeks. At study endpoint, animals were fully instrumented for cardiovascular assessments as in experiments 1 and 2. b All bar plots represent means, and symbols represent data from individual animals at 12 weeks post-SCI. At 12 weeks post-SCI, QTD appears to be lowered in CON (circles) and animals treated with NE (triangles), but is preserved in DOB-treated animals (squares). c Representative left ventricular (LV) pressure–volume loops during IVC occlusions indicate superior LV end-systolic elastance (Ees) in DOB animals compared to CON and NE. d–f Following 12 weeks survival, mean arterial pressure (MAP) is low in animals that received no treatment (CON), but is normal in DOB-treated animals. NE animals, however, exhibit hypertension as seen with elevated MAP, total peripheral resistance (TPR), and augmented arterial elastance (Ea) which collectively indicate elevated cardiac afterload in those animals. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.