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Ischemia‐Induced Conduction Delay and Ventricular Arrhythmias: Comparative Electropharmacology of Bethanidine Sulfate and Bretylium Tosylate

Summary: Bretylium tosylate and bethanidine sulfate were studied in two models of experimental myocardial ischemia. In anesthetized dogs, left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion during rapid atrial pacing (180–200 min−1) produced ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation within 5 min in 9 of 11 dogs studied. In all cases, arrhythmias were preceded by and appeared to be temporally related to progressive fractionation and delay of electrograms recorded from the ischemic zone. In four dogs, bretylium (10 mg/kg) did not alter the time course of electrogram changes nor the time to onset of arrhythmia. However, in five dogs bethanidine (10 mg/kg) markedly exacerbated conduction changes in the ischemic zone and decreased the time to onset of ventricular arrhythmias (173 ± 35 vs. 262 ± 34 s control, mean ± SEM, p < 0.05). Bethanidine administration also facilitated ischemia-induced ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation in two dogs that did not exhibit ischemia-induced arrhythmias before receiving the drug. In isolated perfused rabbit hearts, global ischemia produced conduction slowing, depolarization of resting membrane potential, and decreases in amplitude and Vmax that were reproducible in serial 10 min ischemic episodes. Bretylium (10 mg/L) did not affect these parameters under either perfused or ischemic conditions. Although bethanidine (10 mg/L) also did not affect these parameters during perfusion, conduction slowing and depression of Vmax during ischemia were accelerated without affecting the time course of change in resting membrane potential. Both bretylium and bethanidine prolonged action potential duration under perfused conditions, but after 10 min of ischemia this effect was no longer evident. The results demonstrate that differences in the electrophysiologic effects of bretylium and bethanidine are markedly accentuated in the setting of acute ischemia. Although both these agents have been demonstrated to have antifibrillatory effects in other experimental settings, under the conditions of this study, bretylium failed to protect against ischemia-induced arrhythmias and acute bethanidine administration produced a proarrhythmic effect in association with an exacerbation of ischemia-induced conduction changes.