Myocardial Uptake of Drugs and Clinical Effects

The process of uptake of cardioactive drugs into the myocardium is a major determinant of the efficacy and potential toxicity of such agents. Evaluation of responses to anti-arrhythmic and positive inotropic agents is best performed with reference to their concentration in the myocardium, and the potential toxicity of drugs such as tricyclic antidepressants and anthracycline antineoplastics is likely to be related to peak myocardial drug concentrations. Although it has been appreciated for many years that even during long term drug administration the myocardial drug content may not be readily predictable on the basis of estimation of plasma drug concentrations, methodology for direct assessment of myocardial drug content has remained limited. The results of in vitro experiments, utilising tissue culture preparations of myocardial cells or isolated atria, have shed some light on the role of local factors as determinants of myocardial drug uptake. For many agents, attainment of maximal cardiac drug content in vitro is a very slow process (taking up to 3 hours), although maximal inotropic and electrophysiological effects may occur more rapidly. The prolonged time course of drug washout from these preparations also reflects their extensive and slow intracellular accumulation. Mechanical activity of the myocardium appears to accelerate drug uptake, particularly for otherwise slowly equilibrating agents, but the major determinant of the extent of drug uptake into isolated myocardial preparations is lipophilicity, perhaps reflecting the passage of drugs through the sarcolemma. In intact animals, assessment of myocardial drug content after acute drug administration has been performed utilising serial myocardial biopsy or sacrifice of animals. Studies in open-chested dogs suggest that acute accumulation of agents may be most closely predicted from the second compartment of a 3-compartment pharmacokinetic model, and that there is a variable correlation between changes in plasma and myocardial drug concentrations. For example, bretylium concentrations within the myocardium continue to increase for up to 6 hours after drug administration. Factors which may influence drug uptake into the myocardium in intact animals include ischaemia, which usually results in a delay in both drug uptake and subsequent clearance. This change can also be inferred from the time course of onset of antiarrhythmic drug effects in some models of myocardial ischaemia. Anoxia may also inhibit myocardial drug uptake.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)