Cardiac arrest temperature: the effect of ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide on rats, guinea-pigs and isolated rat hearts.

1. Previous clinical and experimental reports have suggested that the systemic administration of ethyl alcohol permits lower body temperatures before the onset of hypothermic cardiac arrest. 2. In the investigations described here, the effect of ethyl alcohol on the temperature at which cardiac arrest occurred in rats, guinea-pigs and isolated rat hearts was studied. Comparison was also made of the difference between pulmonary ventilation with air and with 5% carbon dioxide in oxygen. 3. The results demonstrated that both the administration of ethyl alcohol and ventilation with 5% carbogen reduced the cardiac arrest temperature of rats. Ethyl alcohol did not influence the cardiac arrest temperature of guinea-pigs nor of isolated rat hearts.