The effect of verapamil on reperfusion arrhythmia in canine heart.

This study was designed to clarify the mechanism of reperfusion arrhythmia and with the effect of verapamil on arrhythmia. In vivo study: Fifty anesthetized dogs were divided into two groups the control group (n = 37) and the verapamil group (n = 13). The left anterior descending coronary artery (LAD) was occluded for 15 min and then reperfused for 5 min. Physiological saline or verapamil (0.4 mg/kg) was infused 5 min prior to the LAD reperfusion. Eleven (30%) of the control dogs developed "reperfusion arrhythmia" (arrhythmia group) but 26 did not (non-arrhythmia group), while in the verapamil group, none of the 13 dogs developed arrhythmia. Immediately after 5 min reperfusion, myocardial plasma membrane and mitochondria were prepared from the normal and the reperfused area. In the arrhythmia group, an increase in free fatty acids (FFA) and a decrease in phospholipids were observed in membrane samples, and the content of calcium in the mitochondria increased in the reperfused myocardium; these changes were not observed in the non-arrhythmia group or the verapamil group. In vitro study: In vitro study consisted of two experiments. In experiment 1, incubation of myocardial plasma membrane with phospholipase (PLase) A2 increased only the unsaturated FFA, while PLase C increased all the detected FFA. In experiment 2, the effects on myocardial membrane potentials induced by PLase A2 and PLase C were studied by using microelectrodes. Each PLase caused a decrease in the resting potential and in the magitude and duration of the action potential.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)