A cardiac antiarrhythmic screening test in the rat: the effects of lidocaine, propranolol and quinidine.

The dose-response and time-action parameters for the prototype antiarrhythmic drugs lidocaine, propranolol and quinidine were established using a cardiac antiarrhythmic screening procedure in the rat. This simple screening procedure produces severe cardiac arrhythmias, primarily ventricular fibrillation, in young post-weaning rats which have been pretreated with a single intramuscular injection of theophylline (20 mg/kg) 15 to 45 min prior to their inhalation of chloroform vapors.