TY - JOUR PY - 1988// TI - Ethanol modulation of plasma norepinephrine response to trauma and hemorrhage JO - Journal of trauma A1 - Newsome, H. H. SP - 1 EP - 9 VL - 28 IS - 1 N2 - Does ethanol affect the adrenergic response to trauma? In 52 trauma victims, grouped according to blood ethanol concentrations, we found there was a significantly higher mean plasma norepinephrine (NE) concentration in heavy imbibers than in those with no detectable blood ethanol (790 +/- 84 pg/ml vs. 1,260 +/- 310; p = 0.02). To control confounding variables such as intensity of pain, injury severity, etc., we selected blood loss (0.9% body weight over 15 min), as an aspect of trauma to study in six normal subjects before and after ingestion of 6 oz and 10 oz of 86-proof liquor on successive days. As expected, the increase in plasma NE upon assumption of an upright position was accentuated by blood loss, (384 +/- 43 pg/ml prebleed; 694 +/- 16 post-bleed; p = 0.001). The postural or hypovolemic effect on plasma NE was enhanced by ingestion of ethanol at 6 oz prebleed (529 +/- 42 pg/ml pre-ethanol vs. 732 +/- 64 post ethanol; p = 0.02) or at 10 oz post-bleed (694 +/- 16 pg/ml vs. 1,154 +/- 166; p = 0.04). There was an approximate dose-response effect of ethanol on plasma NE under all conditions; for example, post-bleeding upright NE: 717 +/- 57, no ethanol; 1,045 +/- 221, 6 oz ethanol, and 1,257 +/- 182, 10 oz ethanol. Plasma epinephrine concentrations were not significantly affected by positional changes, blood loss, or ethanol consumption.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Language: en

LA - en SN - 0022-5282 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -