HEART DAMAGE CAUSED BY BACLOFEN

Abstract

The study aims to identify functional and metabolic disorders of the heart that occur under the influence of toxic doses of baclofen. Material and methods. Two series of vivisections were carried out on male Wistar rats weighing 200–300 g. Animals of the control series were injected with a 0.9 % sodium chloride solution into the stomach through a tube at the rate of 6 ml/kg of body weight. In the trial series, rats were injected into the stomach with baclofen in saline sodium chloride solution at a dose of 145 mg/kg body weight. General inhalation anesthesia was performed with sevoflurane 4 vol. % with an oxygen flow of 2 l/min in an induction chamber. The animals were fixated on their backs on the operating table. Spontaneous breathing was carried out through the mask of the anesthetic machine. The electrocardiogram, heart rate (min-1), respiratory rate (min-1) were recorded, and blood pressure was invasively measured with a BP-100 device. Arterial blood samples were taken for biochemical studies. Euthanasia was performed by intra-arterial injection of a 2 % solution of lidocaine under general anesthesia with chloral hydrate, and then pieces of the myocardium were taken for morphological examination. Results. It was found that baclofen in toxic doses disrupts the function of automatism and conduction, causes bradypnea. Morphologically, microcirculation disorders in the form of plasma separation, stasis, sludge and micro thrombosis, perivascular edema and hemorrhages, as well as cardiomyocytes damage (their wavy deformation and nuclear hyperchromatism) were revealed in the heart muscle.