Persistence of biologic activity after disappearance of propranolol from the serum

In order to evaluate the duration of the biologic effects of propranolol after the drug was discontinued, we evaluated a variety of noninvasively determined hemodynamic parameters. Significant depression was found in the heart rate (18 per cent), cardiac output (13 per cent) (determined echocardiographically), and the triple product of blood pressure, heart rate, and systolic ejection time (16 per per cent) during administration or propranolol (200 mg. per day) to 9 normal volunteers. Significant depression of these parameters was present 12 hours after discontinuing the drug. By 12 hours, serum propranolol levels had returned 90 per cent toward their base line; however, at the same time, the heart rate and cardiac output had returned only 19.4 and 14.3 per cent toward their base-line values, and the triple product had returned 41 per cent toward its baseline. By 36 hours no biologic effect was seen. Thus if propranolol were discontinued 2 days prior to cardiac surgery, no significant biologic effect would remain to complicate the patient's postoperative course.