Effect of calcium channel agonist (BAY K8644) on volatile anesthetic-mediated depression in neonatal rabbit papillary muscle.

Heart muscle is dependent on the entry of calcium from the extracellular fluid to support contraction, and neonatal hearts are particularly sensitive to reductions in transsarcolemmal entry of calcium. Accordingly, this study evaluated the ability of the calcium channel agonist BAY K8644 to prevent or reverse the myocardial depressant effects of halothane or isoflurane in right ventricular papillary muscles from neonatal rabbits. The ability of BAY K8644 to reverse reductions in force (F) and dF/dt (halothane and isoflurane) or prevent reduction (halothane) was studied. Halothane decreased F to 24 +/- 2% of baseline values (p = 0.001). The addition of BAY K8644 reversed F to only 54 +/- 3% of baseline (p = 0.001 vs. baseline and p = 0.002 vs. halothane alone). Isoflurane decreased F to 20 +/- 2% of baseline (p = 0.001) with a return to 45 +/- 4% of baseline with the addition of BAY K8644 (p = 0.0001 vs. baseline and p = 0.0025 vs. isoflurane alone). With BAY K8644 in the bath prior to the addition of halothane, halothane decreased F to 38 +/- 4% of baseline (p = 0.001). dF/dt mirrored changes in F in all studies. These data show that a calcium channel agonist is only partially effective in modulating volatile anesthetic-induced depression in neonatal rabbit ventricular papillary muscle.