A single exposure to cocaine or immobilization stress provides extremely long-lasting, selective protection against sudden cardiac death from tetracaine.
Exposure of rats to one injection of cocaine (35 mg/kg, i.p.) or a single four-hour period of immobilization protected them from the virtually instantaneous death but not from the later, seizure-related death seen in untreated controls following administration of the local anesthetic, tetracaine, 1-4 weeks later. These data suggest that when appropriately timed, strong sympathomimetic stimulation--whether generated by an environmental stressor or a drug--can provide long-lasting protection against the sudden cardiac death potential of local anesthetics. As such, they provide a means for understanding why the incidence of sudden cardiac arrest from one such agent--cocaine itself--is not higher and suggest that an individual's stress history may play a key role in determining vulnerability to the cardiotoxic effect of this compound.
Antelman
S M
SM
Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA 15213.
DeGiovanni
L A
LA
Kocan
D
D
D000818:Animals; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology*; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000517:prevention & control; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D011955:Receptors, Drug / Q000378:metabolism; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D013566:Sympathomimetics / Q000494:pharmacology; D013748:Tetracaine / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity*; D013997:Time Factors
D011955:Receptors, Drug; D013566:Sympathomimetics; D013748:Tetracaine; D003042:Cocaine