| Popis: |
To the Editor:— With regard to the article entitled "Electrocardiogram of Patient in Anaphylactic Shock," by Bernreiter, which appeared inThe Journal, Aug. 1, 1959, page 1629, there seems to be no justification from the evidence presented for the statement "... the myocardium and the coronary circulation are capable of participating directly in anaphylaxis..." Even if one accepts the assumption that this 74-year-old patient's electrocardiogram was normal before he was given penicillin (and it is a pity that "no tracing before the occurrence of shock was available for comparison") the occurrence of sudden severe respiratory distress and quick collapse, with pulse and blood pressure unobtainable, could easily have accounted alone for the whole electrocardiographic sequence of events. One does not need to invoke anaphylaxis to explain it. The author apparently recognizes that "anoxia during the severe cardiovascular collapse in an elderly arteriosclerotic person" might have been the basis for the apparent |
