[Effect of cicletanine on a sudden death model in dogs]

Cicletanine is a new antihypertensive agent. In view of its various pharmacological properties and of the different factors involved in sudden death, cicletanine was tested on an ischaemia-reperfusion model in anaesthesized dogs. In these experiments myocardial reperfusion induced ventricular fibrillation in 87 p. 100 of the cases, where as only 20% of those animals who received cicletanine 20 mg/kg intravenously 15 minutes before the 30 minute coronary occlusion developed ventricular disorders (p less than 0.001 vs controls). Moreover, cicletanine showed good antiarrhythmic activity during occlusion (total number of arrhythmias: 73.0 +/- 23.15 in treated animals, as against 293.4 +/- 40.03 in controls; p less than 0.05). Thus, antihypertensive treatment with cicletanine may prevent some of the cardiovascular risks associated with arterial hypertension.