Abstract
The neural depressing effect of trichlorethylene 1 can explain the alleviation of pain observed clinically, yet its value in the prevention and treatment of angina pectoris 2 may be also due to a cardiovascular effect. With this possibility in mind, a study of the effect of trichlorethylene on the cardiovascular system was undertaken.
Two reports dealing with the cardiovascular effect of trichlorethylene are available. Both are from the same group of workers. 3 4
Lever experiments with the frog's heart were first carried out. Both the atrial and ventricular beat were recorded. The results from 6 experiments were alike. When 1 cc of the drug was dropped on the heart, the rate was slowed, and notching, observed in the control record, disappeared. When the heart is washed with physiologic saline the effects of trichlorethylene are removed. It more than 1 cc of the drug is used, the heart continues to slow and stops in about 5 min. Washing with physiologic saline does not then revive the heart.
Since the electrocardiogram is a better record of the condition of the myocardium and conducting mechanism of the heart, it was decided to use this method next. Rabbits (4). were used for these experiments, and trichlorethylene was administered by inhalation. When the control records were made the rabbits were in a basal-like state, 5 and the drug was administered while they were still in this state. One rabbit was anesthetized every day for a week to study the effect of repeated anesthetizations. In the rabbits not previously treated with trichlorethylene, the drug produced arrhythmias and marked slowing. In the rabbit anesthetized each day for a week, T wave changes were noted on the electrocardiogram taken at the end of the period in addition to those mentioned above.
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