Abstract
INVESTIGATIONS into the intrinsic rhythmicity of normal cardiac pacemakers suggest that the catecholamine content of the myocardium is an important determinant of their activity1. Reserpine depletes stores of catecholamines; in the dog heart–lung preparation after initial acceleration it slows the sinus rate2, and in the dog heart in situ with heart block it markedly slows the ventricular pacemaker1. In man reserpine slows the normal heart3, but since the sinus node is under extra-cardiac control this observation provides no basis for speculation concerning the mechanism of reserpine effects on the cardiac pacemaker.
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MODELL, W., HUSSAR, A. Effect of Reserpine on Atrial and Ventricular Rates in Atrial Fibrillation in Man. Nature 205, 1019 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/2051019a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2051019a0
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