title: Effects of anesthetics on the incidence and duration of reperfusion arrhythmias in isolated rat heart.
abstract: The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of anesthetics on reperfusion arrhythmias. Male Wistar rats (200-300 g) were injected ip with heparin (200 IU), followed by anesthesia with thiopental (40 mg/kg), pentobarbital (30 mg/kg), urethane (1.2 g/kg), either, or halothane and sacrificed by decapitation. The isolated heart (5 to 8 per group) was perfused with Locke solution by the Langendorff method and the left coronary artery was ligated for 10 min. The incidence of reperfusion arrhythmias (100%) was similar in hearts of control and previously anesthetized rats, but the duration of the arrhythmias was significantly increased by anesthesia (5-fold with thiopental, 15-fold with pentobarbital, ether and halothane, and 30-fold with urethane). In hearts taken from unanesthetized rats and perfused with Locke solution containing anesthetics (5-7 per group), the duration of reperfusion arrhythmias decreased with thiopental (0.23 +/- 0.15 min), did not change with pentobarbital (1.14 +/- 0.26 min) and increased with urethane (16.10 +/- 5.60 min). Our results show that anesthetics alter the duration of reperfusion arrhythmias in the isolated rat heart.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Farmacologia, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Goes
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Freire-Maia
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Almeida
mesh_terms: D000777:Anesthetics / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D000818:Animals; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D015425:Myocardial Reperfusion; D010424:Pentobarbital / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013874:Thiopental / Q000494:pharmacology; D014520:Urethane / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D000777:Anesthetics; D014520:Urethane; D010424:Pentobarbital; D013874:Thiopental