Acute testosterone infusion does not exacerbate arrhythmias in the rat model of ischemia/reperfusion (547.15)

Abstract

Introduction: With increasing direct‐to‐consumer marketing, testosterone (T) prescriptions have tripled over the past decade. Clinical literature suggests that exogenous T use may increase various arrhythmias. Therefore, we examined the effect of exogenous T in an acute rat model of arrhythmias.Methods and Results: Anesthetized female Sprague Dawley rats (250g) were given T (2.5 mg/kg, n=9) or vehicle (n=10) intravenously 15 minutes before 5 minutes of coronary artery occlusion. Rats were then reperfused for 5 minutes and arrhythmias were examined. T levels were measured one minute before occlusion. T levels were different between groups (5.4 ± 1 ng/mL control; 206.9 ± 35 ng/mL T, P < 0.001). The ischemic risk zone as a percentage of the left ventricle did not differ between groups (33 ± 2% control; 29 ± 3% T, P = 0.48). The number of episodes of ventricular tachycardia did not differ between groups (11.7 ± 3.2 control; 8.8 ± 3.0 T, P = 0.3). There was a non‐significant trend toward fewer ventricular premature beats with T (37.8 ± 10.3 control; 16.9 ± 8.9 T, P = 0.06) Conclusion: Despite large differences in T levels between groups, T had little effect on the incidence of arrhythmias, suggesting that T supplementation does not increase risk of arrhythmias.