Hypothermia below 25 C for one day in the rat

Abstract

Adult rats were subjected to 24 hr of hypothermia at body temperatures below 25 C because of several characteristics which indicated that rats might withstand such a procedure better than dogs. Two groups were studied: in one the animals were enclosed in a poorly ventilated Lucite cylinder; the rats in the other group were merely wrapped in a cooling blanket. Those rats cooled while in a poorly ventilated enclosure had a significantly increased survival rate; factors which may have influenced this increased survival are discussed. The changes in hematocrit, respiratory rate, and heart rate parallel those observed previously in the dog subjected to the same procedure. Submitted on October 26, 1960