Aim: To study the effects of oxymatrine (Oxy) on arrhythmia in dogs with myocardial infarction.
Methods: Partly ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery in the open-chest dogs produced myocardial infarction of left anterior ventricular wall. After 5-8 d, the diastolic excitability threshold (DET), the effective refractory periods (ERP) and arrhythmias were determined by programmed electric stimulation (PES).
Results: Oxy (i.v. 50 mg.kg-1) increased DET from 2.53 +/- 1.28 to 3.19 +/- 1.62 V, lengthened ERP from 182 +/- 25 to 219 +/- 43 ms at normal region and from 206 +/- 49 to 235 +/- 55 ms at infarct region in left ventricle, but had no effects on dispersion of ERP, QTc interval and ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF). Procainamide (Pro) (i.v. 25 mg.kg-1) increased DET and lengthened ERP and QTc interval, but decreased the dispersion of ERP. Pro prevented PES-induced VT/VF and spontaneous ischemia-related VF.
Conclusion: The increased DET and lengthened ERP of Oxy are its anti-arrhythmic mechanism.