An Electrocardiographic Study of the Anaphylactic Rabbit

Electrocardiographic examination of rabbits during the anaphylactic reaction revealed marked and various changes of the heart's activity in twenty-two out of twenty-four animals. Changes occurred in fatal as well as in non-fatal cases, after the vagi were cut as well as when they were intact. Cardiac disturbances are thus a practically constant result of serum anaphylaxis in the rabbit. It therefore is possible that anaphylaxis plays a role in the causation of certain cardiac derangements in man.