A comparison of the action in patients of g-strophanthin and digitalis

Abstract

In the same patients we have compáred the action of g-strophanthin given intravenously with the action of digitalis (digipuratum) given by mouth. Both drugs were standardized by the cat method. One cat unit equalled 0.1 mgm. g-strophanthin; one cat unit was equal to 0.1 gm. of digipuratum. The patients selected for treatment were as far as possible sufferers from fibrillation of the auricle. Both drugs were usually given in divided doses, the duration of administration being in several instances comparable.

The effect of the drugs on the speed of action, on the electrocardiogram, and on the duration of the effect on the rate of the ventricles when the auricles fibrillate, we report in brief now. The speed of the action is often faster with strophanthin than with digitalis, though when strophanthin is given in divided doses it may require nearly two hours to obtain an effect. In other instances an effect may be obtained, as is well known, in twenty minutes or less. An effect with digitalis has been observed in a little more than two hours.

With digitalis the effect on the rate of the ventricles outlasts that of strophanthin. It is rare for strophanthin to keep the rate low for more than five days; it did so once for nine days. Digitalis effect endures usually beyond ten days and has lasted as long as twenty-three days.

The effect on the T-wave of the electrocardiogram is absent or slight with strophanthin, and its duration when present transient. The effect with digitalis endures in the manner now familiar. With doses equal, in cat units, to the strophanthin given, the effect on the T-wave is not maximal. Larger doses of strophanthin than 1.1 mgm. were not given, so that the dose of digitalis in this series was usually low (1.1 gm,).