Abstract: | Removing sodium from standard ionic contrastmedia markedly increases the incidence of ventricu-lar fibrillation in patients undergoing coronary arvgiography. Newer nonionic contrast media, Iopa-midol (IOP), Iohexol (IOH) and Ioversol (IOV),contain only trace amounts of sodium. To determinewhether sodium influences the fibrillatory propen-sity of nonionic contrast media, we measured theprolongation in QT interval and performed program-med electrical stimulation with l,2 and 3 ventricularextra stimuli in 40 dogs during 4 ml intracoronaryinjections of IOP, IOH and IOV. Solutions of eachcontrast media with added NaCI at concentrations of0.225To, 0.45% and 0.970 were compared to stockcontrast media. The addition of NaCI markedlyincreased the amount of QT interval prolongationproduced by each contrast media. With IOP, theamount of QT interval prolongation was 40+11msec with standard IOP but was 58+11 msec with0.225'70 NaCI/IOP, 84+17 msec with 0.45'To NaCI/IOP, and 132+42 msec with 0.970 NaCl/IOP(P
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