View source for Neural mechanisms in cardiac arrhythmias associated with epileptogenic activity: the effect of phenobarbital in the cat

''Lathers CM, Schraeder PL, and Carnel SB (1984) Neural mechanisms in cardiac arrhythmias associated with epileptogenic activity: The effect of phenobarbital in the cat. Life Sci 34:20 1919–36.''

'''[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0024320584901231 Link to Article]'''

'''Abstract:''' Sudden unexplained death accounts for 5-17% of mortality in epileptic persons; autonomic dysfunction is thought to be a contributing factor. This paper describes the effect of phenobarbital (PB) pretreatment (20 mg/kg, i.v.) one hour prior to pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 2000 mg/kg, i.v. given at ten minute intervals on autonomic parameters in the cat. PB depressed heart rate, blood pressure, and postganglionic cardiac sympathetic neural discharge, but did not significantly alter vagal discharge. PB shifted the peak duration of interictal activity from a lower to a higher dose of PTZ without affecting the average duration across doses. PB also significantly diminished the increases in heart rate and blood pressure induced by PTZ but altered neither the occurrence of arrhythmias nor the changes in cardiac autonomic neural discharge. Thus, PB appears to prevent only some forms of autonomic dysfunction associated with epileptogenic activity in this model.

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*Repeats experiments of Lathers and Schraeder after pretreatment with phenobarbitol. The treatment diminished increases in heart rate and blood pressure but did not affect the occurrence of arrhythmias.

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