Assay of lysergic acid diethylamide and its passage from blood into the perfused cerebral ventricles.

On the isolated rat uterus, lysergic acid diethylamide had an oxytocic action in a concentration of 2x10(-8); in smaller concentrations (10(-9) to 10(-10)), which had no stimulating effect of their own, it potentiated acetylcholine-induced contractions. This potentiating effect was made the basis for assaying minute amounts of lysergic acid diethylamide. The method was used to assay this substance in plasma of cats during its intravenous infusion at a rate of 10 mug./min./kg. During these infusions 0.4 to 2 ng./min. of lysergic acid diethylamide passed into the cerebral ventricles perfused with a salt solution of a composition resembling that of cerebrospinal fluid.