Cardiovascular and hepatic responses of rhesus macaques to staphylococcal enterotoxin B.

Certain cardiovascular and hepatic functions were measured for a period of 6 to 14 hours in conscious, chaired, male rhesus macaques given (intravenously (IV) or orally) staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB). In macaques orally given SEB (1 mg/kg), there was little change in the cardiovascular variables. The half-life of injected indocyanine green was apparently prolonged in macaques given SEB as compared with that in the controls. However, in macaques given SEB (0.05 or 1.0 mg/kg) by IV injection, there were tachycardia, increase in arterial resistance, and decreases in blood pressure, cardiac output, stroke volume, cardiac work, mean cardiac power, and central blood volume. In addition, mean transit time from caudal vena cava to ascending aorta was prolonged and a simultaneous reduction of hepatic removal of indocyanine green occurred.