Erythrocyte deformability in canine septic shock and the efficacy of pentoxifylline and a leukotriene antagonist.

Decreased microcirculatory flow in the case of endotoxic shock has been extensively reported. The flexibility of the red blood cell plays an important role in tissue perfusion. The present study with a canine shock model was designed to investigate the changes in erythrocyte flow properties during septic shock. Deformabilities of canine erythrocytes were found to decrease considerably 6 hr after infusion of Escherichia coli organisms (P less than 0.05). Pretreatment of dogs with pentoxifylline reduced the effect by improving erythrocyte deformability significantly and by increasing animal survival times. The leukotriene antagonist LY171883 also increased survival time, but did not change red cell filterability. The mortality of the dogs was not affected by either pentoxifylline or the leukotriene antagonist. Both drugs aided the concentration recovery of circulating leukocytes by 6 hr post-E. coli infusion.