Abstract
With the introduction of ketamine (Ketalar, Ketaject) in February of 1970, an era of new anesthetic drugs began. This type of agent has been termed dissociative anesthesia 1 . Etoxadrol (also known as CL-1848 C or [(+)-2-(2-ethyl-2-phenyl-1,3-dioxylan-4-yl) piperidine HCl] is a drug of a chemically different nature but possessing pharmacologically similar activity to ketamine in terms of the alterations in cardiovascular and respiratory status they produce 2 , 3 , 4 . Concerning the cardiovascular system, a prominent tachycardia occurs which results in an elevation of cardiac output and systemic arterial pressure. These factors increase the work of the heart with a resultant increased myocardial oxygen demand and consumption. For this reason we considered it important to know the effects of etoxadrol on the coronary circulation, reasoning that if the drug produced a coronary vasoconstricting action in concomitance with the increased oxygen demands of the heart that it would have serious limitations in certain categories of patients. Conversely, if the drug dilated the coronary system, adverse effects on a stimulated heart would be of less concern. This study was designed to answer this question.
Methods. This study was performed on 10 healthy-mongrel dogs of either sex, ranging in weight from 22 to 25 kg. The animals were anesthetized with 30 mg/kg of intravenous pentobarbital. No additional anesthesia was administered during the experiment. The animals' tracheas were intubated and they were allowed to breath spontaneously until later in the protocol. They were placed on a water-flow thermal blanket so as to maintain body temperature in the range of 37.5-38.5°. This variable was recorded with a rectal probe thermister and a Yellow Springs telethermometer. A midline incision was made in the neck so as to expose the right carotid artery.
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