Electrophysiological and Antiarrhythmic Properties of Propafenon in Isolated Cardiac Preparations

Propafenon, a new antiarrhythmic drug, caused a 30% decrease in maximal driving frequency and a 65 ms net increase in functional refractory period of isolated guinea pig atria at a concentration as low as 0.5 μg/ml. The spontaneous rate of isolated atria and the contractility of electrically driven ventricular strips were reduced after treatment with propafenon 1μg/ml. Propafenon 0.5 μg/ml also altered action potentials of sheep Purkinje fiber. It reduced the action potential and overshoot amplitudes, decreased the maximum rate of depolarization of the action potential upstroke in a frequency-dependent fashion, shortened the action potential and effective refractory period, and depressed the membrane responsiveness. Moreover, propafenon antagonized the chronotropic and inotropic effects of isoprenaline in isolated guinea pig heart preparations; the pA2 value was about 6.4. Finally, propafenon possessed very weak calcium antagonist properties, being about 100 times less potent than verapamil in this respect. We conclude that propafenon is an antiarrhythmic drug with β-adrenoceptor blocking and “membrane stabilizing” activities in the same range of concentrations and that it has a calcium antagonistic activity only at much higher concentrations.