Encainide

THE antiarrhythmic properties of quinidine and digitalis were recognized as early as the 19th century, but it was not until the recognition in the 1960s of the antiarrhythmic actions of drugs for local anesthesia, such as lidocaine and procaine, that a systematic search was begun for similar agents with better antiarrhythmic efficacy and less toxicity. In the early 1970s Dykstra et al.1 described the synthesis of a series of analogues of lysergic acid that had antiarrhythmic activity. The activity of one of these agents, MJ 9067, or encainide, was characterized in experimental models of arrhythmias by Byrne et al.2 In . . .