Influence of sympathetic withdrawal on early postinfarction arrhythmias

In this work we studied the incidence and characteristics of early postinfarction arrhythmias in rabbits with sympathetic denervation. The electrical and haemodynamic changes were analyzed. Three groups of animals submitted to coronary occlusion were studied. A control group of normal animals (I), another group of animals injected with practolol prior to occlusion (5 mg/kg i.v.) (II) and a third group of animals in which stellate ganglia were surgically excised prior to occlusion (III). In the control group incidence of early postinfarction arrhythmias was 60% (12 of 20) while in Groups II and III incidence was only 25% (3 of 12 rabbits). The influence of excision or pharmacological blockade of sympathetic system and their role in the genesis of the early arrhythmias is discussed.