Cardiac arrhythmias induced by guanethidine in cats anesthetized with halothane.

Rapid i.v. administration of guanethidine provokes severe and sustained ventricular arrhythmias in cats anesthetized with halothane. The arrhythmias include premature ventricular excitations, multifocal ventricular rhythm, bigeminy, trigeminy and ventricular tachycardia. They begin in about 20 sec and last from 4 to 100 min. By comparison, a standard dose of noradrenaline (10 micrograms/kg) induces ventricular arrhythmias which develop in about 12 sec and continue for 1-2.5 min. Pretreatment with beta-adrenoceptor blocking drugs prevents arrhythmias from both drugs, and pretreatment with imipramine or reserpine prevents arrhythmias for guanethidine but not noradrenaline. The adrenergic neuron blocking action of guanethidine does not alter the arrhythmogenic action of guanethidine since arrhythmias can still be produced after adrenergic neuron blockade. These results indicate that guanethidine causes arrhythmias by releasing noradrenaline from cardiac adrenergic neuron storage sites and, therefore, point out the vulnerability of the heart to arrhythmias when noradrenaline-releasing drugs interact with halogenated hydrocarbon anesthetics.