Effect of body temperature on salicylate-induced hyperventilation.

Hyperventilation and hyperpyrexia occur simultaneously during acute salicylate intoxication. The present experiments were designed to investigate the stimulatory effect of increased body temperature on respiration in this pathological state. Acute salicylate intoxication was produced in mongrel dogs by intravenous infusion of 200 mg sodium salicylate/kg body weight, and the effect of body temperature on salicylate-induced hyperventilation was studied by comparing the respiration of hyperthermic animals with the respiration of animals maintained normothermic during acute salicylate intoxication by bathing them in cold water. The minute volume of ventilation increased greatly over control levels in both normothermic and hyperthermic animals, but this increment was much larger in hyperthermic animals. The increase in ventilation of normothermic animals can be explained as a rise in alveolar ventilation which results in hypocapnia despite large increases in carbon dioxide production and oxygen consumption during acute salicylate intoxication. The further augmentation of ventilation in hyperthermic animals can be explained as a rise in deadspace ventilation in response to increased body temperature during acute salicylate intoxication.