SERIAL DETERMINATIONS OF CARDIAC OUTPUT (BALLISTOCARDIOGRAM) AND ELECTROCARDIOGRAM IN NORMAL MAN AFTER THE INTRAVENOUS ADMINISTRATION OF PURIFIED CARDIAC GLYCOSIDES

¹ From the Departments of Therapeutics and Medicine, New York University College of Medicine and the Third (New York University) Medical Division of Bellevue Hospital

1. The cardiac glycosides, lanatoside C, digoxin and digitaline Nativelle, when administered intravenously in single therapeutic doses to normal subjects, induced small to moderate changes in the electrocardiogram and in several circulatory functions.

2. When fully developed, the type and magnitude of both the electrocardiographic and circulatory changes were essentially the same for all three glycosides.

3. The electrocardiographic changes induced by digitaline Nativelle appeared more slowly and were more persistent than those induced by lanatoside C and digoxin, which acted with approximately equal, and surprising, rapidity.

4. The typical, fully developed circulatory changes when present consisted of:

a) A prompt, often moderate decrease in heart rate, vagal in origin.

b) A rapid small rise in arterial blood pressure, chiefly systolic.

c) A slight, occasionally moderate, increase in stroke volume.

d) A slight or questionable decrease in minute output.

5. The cardiac rate appeared to determine the other circulatory changes.

6. There was no relationship between the electrocardiographic and the hemodynamic effects.

7. The circulatory effects appeared to depend principally on the vagal action of the glycosides; the electrocardiographic changes on their direct, cardiac action.