ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the cardiovascular changes and their sequence of onset in surgically induced and drug-induced cirrhosis. The popular use of these two animal models is probably attributable to the ease at which the disease process can be induced together with the relative rapid onset of the clinical features of cirrhosis. Since cirrhosis and its complications in these models are preceded by jaundice, the bile duct-ligated animal can also be used to study the effects of jaundice on the cardiovascular system. The principal cardiovascular change is a tendency to systemic hypotension which appears to be primarily due to a fall in the total peripheral resistance as opposed to altered cardiac function. Hepatic blood flow is increasing although portal hypertension is evident. The sequence of events following bile duct ligation, with and without resection, are quite different from each other, and that observed in the dog.
