Premium
The Electropharmacology of Acute Drug Testing Using Pacemakers
Author(s) -
ENGEL TOBY R.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8159.1982.tb02283.x
Subject(s) - medicine , refractory period , drug , confusion , drug trial , intensive care medicine , clinical trial , population , cardiology , pharmacology , psychology , environmental health , psychoanalysis
Acute drug testing in patients is useful to select prophylactic treatment for life‐threatening or intractable tachycardias. This is generalJy done by induction of tachycardias with pacing. Acute studies that depend on temporary insertion of pacing electrodes do not determine efficacy in the same sense as longer term clinical drug trials because of the biased population referred for testing with pacemakers. However, the pharmaco‐logic activity of compounds can be tested in terms of electrical functions such as conductivity and refractoriness not merely of the heart in general, but also of the arrhythmogenic focus. Such data can be directly applied to patients with similar arrhythmias, obviating the confusion often caused by interspecies and disease differences. (PACE, Vol. 5, July‐August 1982)