Effects of DPI 201-106, a Novel Cardiotonic Agent, on Hemodynamics, Cardiac Electrophysiology and Arrhythmias Induced by Programmed Ventricular Stimulation in Dogs with Subacute Myocardial Infarction: a Comparative Study with Dobutamine

DPI 201-106 (DPI), a novel and potent cardiotonic agent, exhibits its effects by prolonging the open state of Na+ channels, resulting in an increase in action potential duration, and thus, is supposed to share the class III antiarrhythmic activity. The effects of DPI on the hemodynamics, intraventricular conduction and refractoriness of heart, and the incidence of arrhythmias induced by programmed electrical ventricular stimulation (PES) were compared with (+/-)-dobutamine. Dogs which survived for 5 to 7 days after the induction of myocardial infarction were used as the model. The presence of subacute myocardial infarction caused by occluding the left anterior descending coronary artery elicited a mild left ventricular dysfunction represented by a significant decrease in peak LV dp/dt by about 20%. Both i.v. bolus injection of DPI (1, 3 and 5 mg/kg) and i.v. continuous infusion of dobutamine (3, 5 and 10 micrograms/kg/min), which were administered in a cumulative manner, dose-dependently improved the hemodynamic parameters. At the higher doses of both DPI (3 and 5 mg/kg) and dobutamine (5 and 10 micrograms/kg/min) the control values were reached or even exceeded. DPI dose-dependently increased the effective refractory period (ERP) of both non-infarcted and infarcted ventricular myocardia to a similar degree, but the conduction time showed a frequency-dependent increase in the infarcted myocardium to a greater degree than in the non-infarcted myocardium after DPI. In contrast, dobutamine decreased the ERP in both non-infarcted and infarcted myocardia, and slightly increased the difference of refractoriness between the non-infarcted and infarcted zones with no effect on the intraventricular conduction. In the PES study, DPI (3 and 5 mg/kg) produced a significant decrease in the incidence of ventricular tachycardia, whereas dobutamine (5 and 10 micrograms/kg/min) tended to worsen the arrhythmias. These findings suggest that cardiotonic agents with a class III antiarrhythmic property such as DPI may be potentially useful for the management of heart failure accompanied by ischemic heart disease.