EFFECT OF HALOGENATED ETHYLAMINES ON CARDIAC ARRHYTHMIAS INDUCED BY EPINEPHRINE, NICOTINE AND CYCLOPROPANE

¹ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wayne University College of Medicine, Detroit, Michigan

Three halogenated ethylamines, N-(2-bromoethyl)-N-ethyl-1-naphthalene-methylamine HBr (SY-28), N-[2-(2-biphenylyloxy) ethyl]-N-(2-chloroethyl) butylamine HC1 (SY-30), and N-(2-chloroethyl)-N-ethyl-9-fiuorenylamine HCl (SY-21) were studied for their ability to prevent ventricular arrhythmias during cyclopropane anesthesia.

All three compounds offered protection against epinephrine-cyclopropane arrhythmias, markedly raising the threshold to injected epinephrine. A similar protection against arrhythmias induced by nicotine and deep cyclopropane anesthesia was obtained.

The protective effect of these agents was not always associated with the reversal of blood pressure response. Compound SY-30 regularly offered protection to epinephrine- or nicotine-induced cardiac irregularities without reversing blood pressure. The exact basis for this action is not known.

Repeated injections of nicotine alone will, after a variable period, fail to produce ventricular arrhythmias at a time when the blood pressure response is still normal or slightly reduced.