Effects of ivabradine and beta-blocker therapy on dobutamine-induced ventricular arrhythmias

Indirect evidences suggest that the If blocker ivabradine may exert an antiarrhythmic effect in ventricular myocardium in heart failure (HF) patients by inhibiting spontaneous depolarisations, but the clinical relevance of this mechanism is not known. Dobutamine (DOB) has been known to increase heart rate and the incidence of cardiac arrhythmias.

In this study, we evaluated the effects of ivabradine on DOB-induced ventricular arrhythmias and compared them with those of beta-blocker (BB) therapy.

Patients with decompensated HF requiring inotropic support, left ventricular ejection fraction < 35%, and in sinus rhythm were included in the study (ivabradine group - 29 patients, control group - 29 patients, BB group - 15 patients). All patients underwent Holter recording for 6 h before the initiation of DOB infusion. Following baseline recording, DOB was administered at incremental doses of 5, 10, and 15 μg/kg/min, with 6-h steps. Holter monitoring was continued during 18 h of DOB infusion and analysed for the median number of ventricular premature contractions (VPC), ventricular couplets, episodes of non-sustained ventricular tachycardia, and total ventricular arrhythmias in each step of the study protocol.

The positive chronotropic effect of incremental DOB doses was blunted by beta-blockade and was totally abolished by ivabradine. The median number of VPCs, ventricular couplets, and total ventricular arrhythmias significantly increased with incremental doses of DOB in the control group (p = 0.018) and, to a lesser extent, in the ivabradine group (p = 0.015). In the BB group the absolute VPCs numbers were smaller than in the control or the ivabradine group, with the on-ivabradine VPCs numbers falling between those seen in control and BB groups. A numeric increase in VPCs with incremental DOB doses occurred in the BB group but did not reach statistical significance (p > 0.05), consistent with a protective effect of beta-blockade. Ivabradine reduced VPCs by 43% at 5 μg/kg/min DOB and by 38% at 10 μg/kg/min DOB against the control group (VPCs median 256 vs. 147 and 251 vs. 158) in the absence of significant differences at 15 μg/kg/min DOB between the control and ivabradine groups (overall p > 0.05). Thus, ivabradine administered without background beta-blockade attenuated the arrhythmogenic effect of increasing doses of DOB in the low and moderate DOB dose but not in the high DOB dose.

In patients with decompensated HF, ivabradine appears to reduce the incidence of VPCs in response to low and medium DOB dose. Whether the anti-arrhythmic effect of ivabradine is additive to the anti-arrhythmic effect of beta-blockade requires further investigation; this should also determine the clinical significance of ventricular arrhythmia attenuation with ivabradine.