Abstract
The toxic effects of digitoxin and ouabain were studied in 65 cats anesthetized with sodium pentobarbital or with urethane-chloralose.
1. A consistent relationship was found between the appearance of cardiac irregularities and the fatal dose of each glucoside. Cardiac irregularities occurred after the infusion of about 75% of the fatal dose of digitoxin; with ouabain, they appeared after the injection of about 60% of the fatal dose.
2. This difference in the cardiac action between digitoxin and ouabain was found to be the same regardless of the type of anesthesia employed.
3. Atropine delayed the occurrence of irregularities following ouabain until about 75% of the fatal dose had been injected; it did not influence significantly the occurrence of irregularities produced by digitoxin.
4. The results are interpreted as evidence for a difference in the cardiac action between digitoxin and ouabain in cats. Ouabain exerts an effect upon the vagus which can be suppressed by atropine; digitoxin does not have this effect.
Footnotes
- Received August 11, 1942.
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