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Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, Vol 44, 154-159, Copyright © 1997 by Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society

ARTICLES

Heart rate and cardiac output after atropine in anaesthetised infants and children

G McAuliffe, B Bissonnette, T Cavalle-Garrido and C Boutin
Department of Anaesthesia, Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

PURPOSE: Heart rate is considered to be a major determinant of cardiac output in infants and small children but the relationships between age, heart rate and cardiac output in humans have never been clearly established. This study was designed to determine the change in cardiac output following atropine iv to anaesthetised infants and small children. METHODS: Following Institutional Ethics Committee approval and written-informed consent, 20 ASA I or II unpremedicated patients aged from 1 to 36 mo were studied. Anaesthesia was induced with 5 mg.kg-1 thiopentone, 2 micrograms.kg-1 fentanyl and maintained with halothane 0.5% in nitrous oxide 66% in oxygen. Vecuronium 0.1 mg.kg-1 was used to provide muscular relaxation. Cardiac output was measured by non-invasive transthoracic blind continuous-wave Doppler echocardiography before and after the administration of 0.02 mg.kg-1 atropine iv. RESULTS: Atropine increased both heart rate and cardiac index by 31.1 +/- 12.8% and 29.4 +/- 17.3% respectively (P < 0.05). The cardiac index before atropine was 5.1 +/- 1.2 L.min-1.m-2 and the increase after atropine varied widely from 1.4 to 52.1%. Although atropine did not alter the overall stroke index the recorded changes ranged from -20.8 to +18.0%. There was no association between age and either cardiac index or % change in cardiac index after atropine. However, there was a positive but weak correlation between percentage change in heart rate and cardiac output (r2 = 0.46). CONCLUSION: Atropine causes a variable increase in cardiac output in infants and children aged between 1 and 36 mo. The change in cardiac output, considering the limits of the transthoracic echocardiography methodology, suggests that this is related to the increase in heart rate but is not dependent of age.


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 Canadian J. AnesthesiaHome page
C. Karsli, I. Luginbuehl, M. Farrar, and B. Bissonnette
Propofol decreases cerebral blood flow velocity in anesthetized children: [Le propofol diminue la vitesse circulatoire cerebrale chez les enfants anesthesies]
Can J Anesth, October 1, 2002; 49(8): 830 - 834.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


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Copyright © 1997 by the Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society.