Non-Canine Animal Models for Evaluating Antiarrhythmic Efficacy

Abstract

The most important question in deciding which animal model to employ for a study on the efficacy of an antiarrhythmic agent concerns whether one is screening for a potential antiarrhythmic compound or is testing and evaluating an already proven antiarrhythmic agent. In “screening,” one may have hundreds of agents to analyze and therefore an inexpensive, simple and quick animal model is needed. However, if one is “testing” an already known antiarrhythmic agent then one must use more sophisticated animal models. An important criterion for any non-canine model employed in antiarrhythmic testing is that the model have some direct relationship to the human clinical situation. For example, the antivivisectionists have suggested that tissue cultures of cardiac cells should be utilized for evaluation of antiarrhythmic agents and indeed one can record cardiac pacemaker activity, and even simulated reentry by growing a circuit loop of tissue cultured cardiac cells. Although it is possible to do tissue culture studies on the effects of antiarrhythmic agents, I still believe there are questions as to the relevance of such studies to the clinical situation in man.