Citation

Clark RF, Selden BS, Curry SC. Ann. Emerg. Med. 1991; 20(10): 1073-1077.

Affiliation

Department of Medical Toxicology, Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, Phoenix, Arizona.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1991, American College of Emergency Physicians, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

1928877

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To examine the efficacy of digoxin-specific Fab fragments (dsFab) in the treatment of experimentally induced Nerium oleander cardiac glycoside toxicity in a dog model. DESIGN: A nonblined, placebo-controlled experiment. SUBJECTS: Ten adult greyhound dogs of either sex divided into treatment and control groups of five dogs each. INTERVENTIONS: A tincture of oleander was prepared and administered intravenously to each animal. After the onset of cardiotoxicity, the treatment group received 60 mg/kg dsFab IV. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: All dogs exhibited dysrhythmias meeting our criteria for cardiac glycoside cardiotoxicity within 27 minutes of beginning the infusion. Three of five control dogs had lethal dysrhythmias during the three-hour observation period. The remaining two control dogs exhibited dysrhythmias throughout the three-hour experiment. All five of the dsFab-treated dogs survived and converted to normal sinus rhythm within eight minutes of dsFab infusion. Three treatment animals reverted back to nonlethal and hemodynamically stable dysrhythmias after a mean of 107 minutes. CONCLUSION: Large doses of dsFab are efficacious in the treatment of dysrhythmias in this canine model of N oleander cardiac glycoside poisoning.

Language: en