The effect oa a new anti-inflammatory drug, flurbiprofen, on the respiratory, haemodynamic and metabolic responses to E. coli endotoxin shock in the cat.

1 The intravenous administration of E. coli endotoxin (2.0 mg/kg) in cats anaesthetized with sodium pentobarbitone resulted in immediate pulmonary hypertension and reductions in lung compliance and systemic arterial PO2. These effects were abolished, or greatly reduced, by the prior intravenous administration of flurbiprofen in doses (100 and 250 mug/kg and 1.0 mg/kg) which were devoid of cardiovascular or metabolic effects. Flurbiprofen is thus the most active antipyretic-analgesic drug so far examined in this experiment model. 2 Production of lactate, characteristic of the severe, secondary endotoxin shock phase, was delayed only by the highest dose of flubiprofen; hypotension, hypoglycaemia and the reduction in cardiac output which occurs during this phase, were unaffected. 3 These findings are discussed with reference to the treatment of the (shocked lung" syndrome of human septicaemia.