Dose-related cardiac electrophysiologic effects of sulfinpyrazone

To test the hypothesis that sulfinpyrazone exerts cardiac electrophysiologic effects, the drug was intravenously injected into 20 subjects during invasive electrophysiologic testing. Sulfinpyrazone was given intravenously as a bolus and by infusion to achieve two different and stable serum levels. The 20 subjects who were treated with drug were assigned to either a low- (N = 10) or high- (N = 10) dose regimen. The resultant four serum levels of sulfinpyrazone were 102 +/- 45, 199 +/- 75, 278 +/- 57, and 352 +/- 77 X 10(-3) mumol (means +/- SD). Electrophysiologic measurements were made during a baseline electrophysiologic study and at each of the sulfinpyrazone levels and at equivalent times in an untreated control group (N = 11). Two electrophysiologic measurements differed when measured at the highest level of sulfinpyrazone and in control subjects: increased HV interval in sinus rhythm and shortened atrial functional refractory period in sinus rhythm (only for those values below the median). Serum levels of sulfinpyrazone correlated with increased sinoatrial conduction time (only for those values above the median; r = 0.64) and with shortened atrial functional refractory periods (r = 0.37). The latter was stronger (r = 0.67) when only values below the median were included in analysis. Shortening of atrial functional refractory period correlated with serum sulfinpyrazone levels during atrial pacing at fixed cycle lengths of 600 and 500 msec. Serum levels of sulfinpyrazone did not correlate with changes in HV interval. HV intervals did not increase in subjects receiving sulfinpyrazone during atrial pacing and, therefore, the effect on HV interval in sinus rhythm is felt to be spurious.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)