Acute renal toxic effect of amiodarone in rats

Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic drug now more frequently used after a number of years in which the use had been on the decline due to a number of studies which reported side effects such as chronic toxicity, primarily in the lungs, liver and thyroid glands. Additionally, in some patients an increase in serum creatinine was noted, however the effect of amiodarone on renal function had never been closely examined. Thus, the aim of our study was to analyse the effects of amiodarone on renal function in rats. Experiments were carried out in male Wistar rats divided in two experimental groups: 1) a control group, (n=8), 2) a group that received a daily intraperitoneal injection of amiodarone (50 mg/kg body weight) for 6 days (n=5). At the end of the treatment, renal function was measured by clearance creatinine and acute clearance studies. Renal toxicity was evaluated by urinary N-acetyl-glucosamine and alkaline phosphatase. At the end of the experiment, histology studies were done. Rats treated with amiodarone had a higher serum creatinine (182%) and a lower glomerular filtration rate (53%), renal plasma flow (68%) and filtration fraction (62%) than controls. Rats treated with amiodarone also showed an increase in urinary N-acetyl-glucosamine (221%) and alkaline phosphatase (4.151%) excretion which corresponds with tubular alterations showed on electron microscopy. In conclusion our data confirm that amiodarone induces acute renal damage in the rat.