The effect of dinitrophenol, hypoxaemia and ischaemia on the phosphorus compounds of the dog heart.

The results reported in this paper indicate that dinitrophenol acts directly on the isolated heart, increasing its metabolic rate. It also produces heart failure associated with a low phosphocreatine content of the muscle but with no change in adenosine triphosphate, which may or may not be due to a relative hypoxia of the cardiac tissue. Experimental arterial hypoxaemia, if severe, produces a similar picture of heart failure with a decrease in phosphocreatine and no change in adenosine triphosphate. Ligation of the coronary arteries results in disappearance of the major part of the phosphocreatine within a few minutes regardless of whether or not ventricular fibrillation ensues; the adenosine triphosphate remains unchanged.