Fig. 2

Systemic cardiovascular responses observed in brain dead and control animals during induction of BD and over 24 h. a Heart rate. After an early peak, heart rate decreased and was similar to controls at 24 h. b Mean arterial pressure increased with induction of brain death and then fell below baseline and control animals. Although some improvement occurred with administration of hormone therapy at 12 h, blood pressure remained below controls to 24 h. c Cardiac index was also elevated after induction of brain death but returned to control levels by 3 h. It fell to a level lower than controls after administration of hormone therapy. d Systemic vascular resistance index followed a similar pattern to mean arterial pressure. Brain death was induced immediately after the baseline value at time 0