Human Sepsis Utilizing ECG Gated Cardiac Scintigraphy

(P < .001) and left ventricular stroke work Index (P < .001) at a lower pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (P < .01), as well as systemic vascular (P < .001) and pulmonary vascular resistance mdcx (P < .01), than the cardiac group. By RN anglography the septIc population was shown to have an LVEF that compared favorably with the normal population (P = NS) and was significantly higher than that of the cardiac popuhaT he effect of systemic sepsis on myocardial fumetion, specifically myocardial contractility, remains incompletely characterized. We appreciate that severe systemic sepsis is usually a hyperdymamic circulatory state, as evidenced by an increased cardiac output at low levels of both preload and afterload.1’2 However, both MacLean et a!1 and Wilson et al2 suggested the existence of a subgroup of patients with sepsis, not in shock, who had evidence of a depression in myocardial contractility as characterized by a lower than normal cardiac output in the presence of high left ventricular filling