title: Delayed appearance of a circulating myocardial depressant factor in burn patients.
abstract: Fourteen burn patients and four normal controls were studied for the plasma activity of a myocardial depressant factor (MDF). The mean age of the burn patients was 40.4 years and the burn area was 61.9% of body surface. MDF activities were 28 +/- 3 units in the burn patients on day 1 and 56 +/- 4 units on days 4 and 5. This compares with 23 +/- 3 units for the control patients. Despite maintenance of high cardiac output by fluid therapy, only three of the 14 patients (21%) survived. Our data show the presence in burn patients of MDF, which may contribute to high mortality rates in these patients.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002056:Burns / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality; D005260:Female; D005440:Fluid Therapy; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009201:Myocardial Depressant Factor / Q000097:blood*; D010455:Peptides / Q000097:blood*; D012769:Shock / Q000097:blood* / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D009201:Myocardial Depressant Factor; D010455:Peptides