Pretreatment with phenoxybenzamine attenuates the radial artery's vasoconstrictor response to alpha-adrenergic...

Although the radial artery bypass conduit has excellent intermediate-term patency, it has a proclivity to vasospasm. We tested the hypothesis that brief pretreatment of a radial artery graft with the irreversible adrenergic antagonist phenoxybenzamine attenuates the vasoconstrictor response to the vasopressors phenylephrine and norepinephrine compared with the currently used papaverine/lidocaine.

Segments of human radial artery grafts were obtained after a 30-minute intraoperative pretreatment with a solution containing 20 mL of heparinized blood, 0.4 mL of papaverine (30 mg/mL), and 1.6 mL of lidocaine (1%). The segments were transported to the laboratory and placed into a bath containing Krebs-Henseleit solution and 10, 100, or 1000 micromol/L phenoxybenzamine or vehicle. The segments were tested in organ chambers for contractile responses to increasing concentrations of phenylephrine and norepinephrine (0.5-15 micromol/L).

Contractile responses to 15 micromol/L phenylephrine in control radial artery segments averaged 44.2% +/- 9.1% of the maximal contractile response to 30 mmol/L KCl. Papaverine/lidocaine modestly attenuated contraction to 15 micromol/L phenylephrine (32.1% +/- 5.9%; P =.22), but 1000 micromol/L phenoxybenzamine completely abolished radial artery contraction (-7.2% +/- 4.4%; P <.001). The effect of 10 and 100 micromol/L phenoxybenzamine on attenuating vasocontraction was intermediate between 1000 micromol/L phenoxybenzamine and papaverine/lidocaine. Responses to 15 micromol/L norepinephrine in control radial artery segments averaged 54.7% +/- 7.5% of maximal contraction to 30 mmol/L KCl. Papaverine/lidocaine modestly attenuated the contraction response of radial artery segments (35.6% +/- 5.1%; P =.04). In contrast, 1000 micromol/L phenoxybenzamine showed the greatest attenuation of norepinephrine-induced contraction (-10.5% +/- 2.0%; P <.001).

A brief pretreatment of the human radial artery bypass conduit with 1000 micromol/L phenoxybenzamine completely attenuates the vasoconstrictor responses to the widely used vasopressors norepinephrine and phenylephrine. Papaverine/lidocaine alone did not block vasoconstriction to these alpha-adrenergic agonists.