Summary
A comparative study of the cardiodynamic and metabolic effects of norepinephrine, dopamine and dobutamine was carried out on the isolated heart-lung preparation from dogs, modified to measure coronary outflow and myocardial oxygen consumption. Infusions of the three sympathomimetic drugs which increased myocardial contractility, as reflected by maximal rate of rise of left ventricular pressure, dpldt, by 24%, produced comparable increases in heart rate of 5 to 7% with the three drugs, comparable increases in myocardial oxygen consumption of 11% with dopamine and 19% with dobutamine and a decrease in mechanical efficiency of 13% with dobutamine. At higher doses which increased dp/dt by an average of 68%, heart rate increased by 9%, 19% and 26% following norepinephrine, dopamine and dobutamine, respectively, the increase produced by dobutamine being significantly higher than that produced by norepinephrine. Myocardial oxygen consumption increased significantly following dopamine by 39% and dobutamine by 46% but not following norepinephrine. Mechanical efficiency decreased following dobutamine by 24%. At average increases in dp/dt of 123% and 166%, there were further increases in heart rate and myocardial oxygen consumption and decreases in mechanical efficiency, the changes in each parameter being similar for all three drugs. The increase in coronary outflow was compared with the spontaneous increase which is regularly observed with time in the isolated heart-lung preparation. Only dobutamine was found to increase coronary outflow by 49%, 117% and 137% at increases in dp/dt of 71%, 118% and 173%, respectively. It may be concluded from this study that, in the isolated heart, only norepinephrine can increase dp/dt by 57% without a concomitant increase in myocardial oxygen consumption and decrease in mechanical efficiency. Only dobutamine increases coronary outflow significantly above the spontaneous increase which is expected in the isolated heart-lung preparation, probably due to a more prominent direct relaxant effect on the coronary vascular bed. There is no significant difference in the arrhythmogenic effect of the three sympathomimetic drugs.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Fawaz G, Simaan J (1979) The cardiodynamic and metabolic effects of verapamil on the isolated dog heart. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 310:139–145
Fawaz G, Tutunji B (1957) The mechanism of dinitrophenol heart failure. Brit J Pharmacol 12:273–278
Leier CV, Unverferth DV (1983) Dobutamine. Ann Intern Med 99:490–496
Liang CS, Hood WB (1979) Dobutamine infusion in conscious dogs with and without autonomic nervous system inhibition: effects on systemic hemodynamics, regional blood flows and cardiac metabolism. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 211:698–705
Loeb HS, Bredakis J, Gunnar RM (1977) Superiority of dobutamine over dopamine for augmentation of cardiac output in patients with chronic low output cardiac failure. Circulation 55:375–381
von Restorff W, Bassenge E (1978) Effect of dobutamine, a new cardioselective sympathomimetic drug, on myocardial oxygen balance in conscious dogs. Arzneimittelforschung/Drug Res 28:990–992
Robie NW, Goldberg LI (1975) Comparative systemic and regional hemodynamic effects of dopamine and dobutamine. Am Heart J 90:340–345
Robie NW, Nutter DO, Moody C, McNay JL (1974) In vivo analysis of adrenergic receptor activity of dobutamine. Circ Res 34:663–671
Sakanashi M, Tomomatsu E, Takeo S, Araki H, Iwasaki K, Sakamoto K, Takenaka F (1978) Effects of dobutamine on coronary circulation and cardiac metabolism of the dog. Arzneimittelforschung/Drug Res 28:798–801
Simaan J, Fawaz G (1968) The mechanical efficiency of the Starling heart-lung preparation. Plügers Arch 302:123–132
Simaan J, Fawaz G (1973) The metabolic effect of noradrenaline on the isolated canine heart after blockade of the chronotropic action by veratramine. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 277:199–209
Simaan J, Fawaz G, Jarawan S (1971) The effect of ouabain-induced contractility on myocardial oxygen consumption. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 271:249–261
Sonnenblick EH, Frishman WH, Le Jemtei TH (1979) Dobutamine: a new synthetic cardioactive sympathetic amine. N Engl J Med 300:17–22
Sorensen EV, Nielsen-Kudsk F (1986) Myocardial pharmacodynamics of dopamine, dobutamine, amrinone and isoprenaline compared in the isolated rabbit heart. Eur J Pharmacol 124:51–57
Stoner III JD, Bolen JL, Harrison DC (1977) Comparison of dobutamine and dopamine in treatment of severe heart failure. Br Heart J 39:536–539
Tuttle RR, Mills J (1975) Development of a new catecholamine to selectively increase cardiac contractility. Circ Res 36:185–196
Vasu MA, O'Keefe DD, Kapellakis GZ, Vezeridis MP, Jakobs ML, Dagget WM, Powell WJ (1978) Myocardial oxygen consumption: effects of epinephrine, isoproterenol, dopamine, norepinephrine and dobutamine. Am J Physiol 235:H237-H241
Vatner SF, McRitchie RJ, Braunwald E (1974) Effects of dobutamine on left ventricular performance, coronary dynamics, and distribution of cardiac output in conscious dogs. J Clin Invest 53:1265–1273
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Send offprint requests to J. A. Simaan at the above address
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Simaan, J.A., Fawaz, G. & Jabbour, K. Comparison of the cardiodynamic and metabolic effects of dobutamine with those of norepinephrine and dopamine in the dog isolated heart. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Arch Pharmacol 338, 174–179 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00174866
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00174866