Acute, massive, haemorrhagic adrenal necrosis experimentally produced by the Shwartzman mechanism in rabbits.

ABSTRACT

Acute and severe haemorrhagic necrosis of the adrenal was produced experimentally in rabbits by means of intravenous injection of endotoxin after pretreatment by adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) administration. The change occurred mainly in the zona fasciculata of the adrenal cortex, and its pathology was quite similar to that of the Shwartzman reaction. Numerous microthrombi were found in and around the lesion, but no marked changes were seen in other parts of the body. Heparin administration was very effective in preventing the necrosis. The pathogenesis of this lesion was postulated to be a univisceral Shwartzman mechanism in the adrenal. This seems to be a good experimental model for massive haemorrhagic necrosis of the adrenal in man, for example in the Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, the pathogenesis of which has been assumed to involve intravascular clotting. It is suggested that hyperfunction of the adrenal cortex caused by ACTH administration could be a preparative condition for the Shwartzman reaction.