SPONTANEOUS VENTRICULAR DEFIBRILLATION IN HYPOTHERMIA

'Floating' microelectrodes were used to examine the transmembrane potentials of left and right ventricular cardiomyocytes in the guinea pig exposed to deep cooling. In the wide range of temperatures (37 to 20-degrees-C), the transmembrane potentials did not substantially change, no fibrillation occured. There may be a spontaneous reversible ventricular fibrillation in hypothermia where asynchrous excitation of myocardial cells occurs during cell membrane depolarization, which is essentially less than at normal body temperature.