title: The amino acid cerebral pool after toxic doses of lidocaine and mexiletine. An experimental study on guinea pigs.
abstract: Lidocaine and Mexiletine are two anti-arrhythmic drugs which when administered in toxic doses cause alterations in the central nervous system (convulsions, tremors, coma). An experimental study was carried out to clarify some neurological side-effects caused by these two drugs, by studying the variations of the brain amino acid pool. With Lidocaine one can observe an increase of phenyl-alanine and tyrosine, a decrease of glycine, GABA, alanine, aspartate and glutamate, while taurine and ammonia showed no significant changes. After Mexiletine one can observe an increase of ammonia, a decrease of GABA, glutamine, glycine and alanine, while glutamate, taurine, phenyl-alanine and tyrosine remain within normal values. In conclusion, on the basis of the data obtained by comparing the two drugs, one could say that Lidocaine has a greater interference on the catecholaminic precursors which are little influenced by Mexiletine. For the rest, the data obtained are practically super- imposable .
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D000641:Ammonia / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects*; D006168:Guinea Pigs; D008012:Lidocaine / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity*; D008801:Mexiletine / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000633:toxicity*; D011437:Propylamines / Q000633:toxicity*
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D011437:Propylamines; D008801:Mexiletine; D000641:Ammonia; D008012:Lidocaine