Background and purpose
Several rabbit proarrhythmia models have been developed using genetic or pharmacological
Purpose
Several rabbit proarrhythmia models have been developed using genetic or pharmacological
Results
In our model, TdP arrhythmias appeared with high reproducibility after i.v. dofetilide (10-100 μg·kg-1 ) in five out of six rabbits, sparfloxacin (30 mg·kg-1 ) in three out of six rabbits and haloperidol (0.3-3 mg·kg-1 ) in two out of six rabbits. The lethal arrhythmias repeatedly appeared and were accompanied with prolongation of the QT interval and early afterdepolarization-like phenomena. Neither amiodarone (0.3-10 mg·kg-1 , n = 6) nor moxifloxacin (3-30 mg·kg-1 , n = 6) induced such arrhythmias, even when QT intervals were prolonged. Conclusions and implications: These results suggest that our model of the unremodelled and bradycardic heart of the anaesthetized rabbit is a useful test system for the detection of drug-induced TdP arrhythmias.