Delayed appearance of a circulating myocardial depressant factor in burn patients.

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.