Action of G-Strophanthin and Digitalis. 8i 



47 (1507) 



A comparison of the action in patients of g-strophanthin and 



digitalis. 



By Alfred E. Cohn and Robert L. Levy. 



[From the Hospital of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, 



New York.] 



In the same patients we have compared the action of g- 

 strophanthin given intravenously with the action of digitalis 

 (digipuratum) given by mouth. Both drugs were standardized 

 by the cat method. One cat unit equalled 0.1 mgm. g-strophan- 

 thin; one cat unit was equal to 0.1 gm. of digipuratum. The 

 patients selected for treatment were as far as possible sufferers 

 from fibrillation of the auricles. Both drugs were usually given 

 in divided doses, the duration of administration being in several 

 instances comparable. 



The effect of the drugs on the speed of action, on the electro- 

 cardiogram, and on the duration of the effect on the rate of the 

 ventricles when the auricles fibrillate, we report in brief now. 

 The speed of the action is often faster with strophanthin than 

 with digitalis, though when strophanthin is given in divided 

 doses it may require nearly two hours to obtain an effect. In other 

 instances an effect may be obtained, as is well known, in twenty 

 minutes or less. An effect with digitalis has been observed in a 

 little more than two hours. 



With digitalis the effect on the rate of the ventricles outlasts 

 that of strophanthin. It is rare for strophanthin to keep the rate 

 low for more than five days ; it did so once for nine days. Digitalis 

 effect endures usually beyond ten days and has lasted as long as 

 twenty- three days. 



The effect on the T-wave of the electrocardiogram is absent 

 or slight with strophanthin, and its duration when present tran- 

 sient. The effect with digitalis endures in the manner now 

 familiar. With doses equal, in cat units, to the strophanthin 

 given, the effect on the T-wave is not maximal. Larger doses of 

 strophanthin than 1.1 mgm. were not given, so that the dose of 



