Arachidonic acid cascade metabolites in porcine E. coli shock. Coagulation, fibrinolytic and hemodynamic response.

Cardiopulmonary hemodynamics and changes in various hemostatic factors (alpha 2M, alpha 2AP, AT III, prothrombin-proconvertin activity, fibrinogen concentration, ethanol gelation test and fibrinolytic activity on fibrin plates) were investigated in pigs during shock induced with live Escherichia coli. Anesthetized pigs were treated with indomethacin or with the combined cyclooxygenase/lipoxygenase inhibitor BW755C before the E. coli infusion or were left untreated as septic controls. Septic shock developed in all of these animals. Pretreatment attenuated the early deterioration of pulmonary circulation but did not modify the coagulation/fibrinolytic activation or the disturbed cardiopulmonary hemodynamics seen in the delayed phase of shock. The arachidonic acid cascade metabolites thus seems to mediate the early, but not the delayed cardiopulmonary reaction and to have minor importance for activation of coagulation and fibrinolysis in E. coli-shocked pigs.