| abstract |
The present invention relates to novel noncardiotoxic compounds and pharmaceutical compositions useful in the treatment of a variety of disorders including the treatment of depression, allergies, psychoses, cancer and gastrointestinal disorders. In particular, the present invention describes pharmaceutical compositions that mitigate life-threatening arrhythmias such as torsade de pointes. Torsade de pointes is a particular cardiac problem associated with many therapeutic agents and has been implicated as a possible cause of sudden death, particularly in those individuals with a past history of disturbances of cardiac rhythm, myocardial infarction, congenital repolarization abnormalities and cardiac risk factors such as hyperlipidemia and age. This arrhythmia is a variant of paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia associated with a prolonged QTc interval or prominent U waves on the ECG. Torsade de pointes is potentially lethal because it can progress to ventricular fibrillation, life-threatening arrhythmias or precipitate sudden death. |