Piperazine protects the rat heart against sudden cardiac death from barium chloride-induced ventricular fibrillation.

Abstract

Fifteen of 20 Wistar albino rats were treated with various doses of the anthelmintic agent piperazine citrate (15, 30, and 60 mg/kg body weight). All 20 rats were subsequently given barium chloride, 20 mg/kg. The 5 rats (25%) that did not receive piperazine citrate developed ventricular fibrillations after barium chloride was administered to them, via one of the external jugular veins, and died shortly thereafter. The remaining 75% of the rats were fully protected by all the doses of piperazine citrate employed for the study. Barium chloride did not produce any dysrhythmic phenomenon in the piperazine-protected rats. Conversely, sinus rhythm was maintained in the electrocardiogram of all the rats, with every P wave followed by a normal QRS-T complex. This may portend a novel application for an old drug.

• Authors: Samuel Ghasi
• Journal: American journal of therapeutics (Am J Ther) 2008 Mar-Apr Vol. 15 Issue 2 Pg. 119-25 ISSN: 1536-3686 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 18356631 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Anthelmintics
• Anti-Arrhythmia Agents
• Barium Compounds
• Chlorides
• Piperazines
• barium chloride
• Piperazine

Topics

• Animals
• Anthelmintics (administration & dosage, therapeutic use)
• Anti-Arrhythmia Agents (administration & dosage, therapeutic use)
• Barium Compounds
• Chlorides
• Death, Sudden, Cardiac (etiology, prevention & control)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Electrocardiography
• Heart (drug effects, physiopathology)
• Piperazine
• Piperazines (administration & dosage, therapeutic use)
• Rats
• Rats, Wistar
• Ventricular Fibrillation (chemically induced, physiopathology, prevention & control)