Tolerance to acetyl strophanthidin, a rapid-acting cardiac aglycone, was determined in 28 anesthetized mongrel puppies, ages 16 to 56 days, and compared to tolerance in 16 littermate puppies in whom acute hypercapnic acidemia was produced. The tolerance was also compared to that of four adult mongrel dogs. The toxic dose was defined as the intravenous amount required to produce four consecutive premature ventricular contractions.
A marked variation in the toxic dose was found in the 28 control puppies (range 83 to 353 µg/kg, mean 169 µg/kg) which could not be correlated with age, arterial blood gases or pH, serum potassium or sodium, arterial pressure, or heart rate. The toxic dose was significantly greater in the puppies than in the adult dogs, in whom the mean toxic dose was 64 µg/kg (range 50 to 89 µg/kg). A significant increase in tolerance was also observed in the puppies with hypercapnic acidemia (mean toxic dose 220 µg/kg, range 93 to 375 µg/kg) in comparison to tolerance in the control puppies and despite the wide range of tolerance, each of the puppies with hypercapnic acidemia showed greater tolerance than its littermate control puppy. Assessment of the clinical implications of these findings will require study of the effects of alterations in acid-base balance on the inotropic effect of acetyl strophanthidin in addition to the toxic electrophysiologic effects.
