Chlorpromazine: cardiac arrhythmogenicity in the cat.

To determine the effect of chlorpromazine on ouabain-induced arrhythmia and death, dial-urethane anesthetized cats were pretreated with chlorpromazine (5, 10, 20, 30, 40, or 60 mg/kg, i.v.) and then administered ouabain (2 microgram/kg/min, i.v.). Blood pressure, heart rate and lead II electrocardiogram (ECG) were monitored. The dosages of ouabain necessary to induce premature ventricular contractions, ventricular tachycardia and death were determined. No significant correlation between the dose of chlorpromazine given and the dose of ouabain required to produce arrhythmia or death was found. These doses of chlorpromazine could, therefore, be considered neither arrhythmogenic nor antiarrhythmic in the ouabain model. To determine whether chlorpromazine produced arrhythmia in the dial-urethane anesthetized cat model, the drug was infused at a rate of 1 mg/kg/min, i.v. Chlorpromazine produced arrhythmia at 185 +/- 4.3 minutes and death via cardiovascular collapse at 128 +/- 4.7 minutes. Bilateral adrenal vein ligation, employed to eliminate the influence of adrenal catecholamines, decreased the dosage of chlorpromazine necessary to produce arrhythmia and death to 67.8 +/- 17.7 and 84.7 +/- 15.7 mg/kg, respectively. Thus, adrenal catecholamines did not appear to contribute to chlorpromazine-induced arrhythmia, although the procedure of bilateral adrenal vein ligation appeared to be deleterious in combination with chlorpromazine. In all experiments, chlorpromazine depressed blood pressure without producing the reflex tachycardia normally seen with hypotension. This suggests that the drug may be interfering with the baroreceptor reflex arc. As chlorpromazine modifies the autonomic parameters of blood pressure, heart rate, and cardiac electrophysiology, sudden unexplained death in patients managed with this agent may be due to drug-induced arrhythmia.