title: Electrical dose for ventricular defibrillation of large and small animals using precordial electrodes.
abstract: Electrical ventricular defibrillation of heavy subjects (over 100 kg body weight) is uncommon for the human or any animal species. This paper reports trans-chest ventricular defibrillation of subjects ranging in weight from 2.3 to 340 kg using conventional defibrillation current (heavily damped sine wave) of 0.3-30 ms duration. It was found that a body weight-to-electrical-shock strength relationship exists and can be expressed in terms of either electrical energy or peak current. For the duration of current pulse used clinically (3-10 ms), the relationship between energy requirement and body weight is expressed by the equation U = 0.73 W(1.52), where U is the energy in W.s and W is the body weight in kilograms. The current relationship is I = 1.87 W(0.88) where I is the peak current in amperes and W is the body weight in kilograms. The energy dose is somewhat more species and weight dependent and ranges from 0.5 to 10 W.s/kg (0.23-4.5 W.s/lb). The data obtained indicate that the peak current dose is virtually species and weight independent and is therefore a better indicator than energy for electrical defibrillation with precordial electrodes. In the duration range of 3-10 ms, the electrical dose is very nearly 1 A/kg of body weight (0.45 A/lb).
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D004285:Dogs; D004554:Electric Countershock; D004566:Electrodes; D006041:Goats; D006321:Heart; D006736:Horses; D008722:Methods; D009929:Organ Size; D011817:Rabbits