title: Flow-independent improvement by diltiazem of ischemia-induced conduction delay in porcine hearts.
abstract: The calcium channel blocking agent, diltiazem, improves ischemia-induced conduction delays in the canine heart. It is not known, however, if the improvement of myocardial blood flow caused by diltiazem participates in this response. Accordingly, ischemia-induced conduction delay was measured during brief coronary artery occlusion before and after administration of diltiazem in nine anesthetized pigs with fixed heart rate. Acute coronary occlusion prolonged subendocardial (mean +/- standard error of the mean, 39.9 +/- 3.9 ms) and subepicardial (41.6 +/- 4.1 ms) conduction times (time to peak of the bipolar electrogram in each region) by 51 +/- 4 and 58 +/- 5%, respectively. Regional myocardial blood flow at the ischemic electrode sites was 0.006 +/- 0.002 ml/min per g and was unaffected by diltiazem. Intravenous diltiazem pretreatment (0.01, 0.1, 0.3 and 1.0 mg/kg) 5 minutes before coronary occlusion significantly reduced the ischemia-induced conduction delay in both subendocardial and subepicardial regions during coronary occlusion. The pigs in which ventricular fibrillation occurred within 10 minutes showed a significantly longer conduction delay than that observed in pigs in which ventricular fibrillation occurred later (greater than 10 minutes). Thus, the data suggest that the reduction of ischemia-induced conduction delay produced by diltiazem is independent of blood flow changes and, therefore, that diltiazem may have a beneficial antiarrhythmic action.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology; D001552:Benzazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000187:drug effects; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004110:Diltiazem / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000187:drug effects*; D006339:Heart Rate; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents; D001552:Benzazepines; D004110:Diltiazem