ABC | Volume 114, Nº2, February 2020

Original Article Fleury et al. Epinephrine and felypressin effects Arq Bras Cardiol. 2020; 114(2):295-303 Figure 3 – Minimal hypotensive response curves after intravenous injection in bolus of epinephrine in control non-smoker normotensive and smoker normotensive rats, non-smoker 1K1C hypertensive and smoker 1K1C hypertensive, non-smoker 1K1C atenolol-treated and smoker 1K1C atenolol treated rats. n = 6. Mean ± Standard Deviation. *p < 0.05 vs non-smokers groups. Figure 4 – Heart rate before and after intravenous injection in bolus of epinephrine (A) and felypressin (B) in control non-smoker normotensive and smoker normotensive rats, non-smoker 1K1C hypertensive and smoker 1K1C hypertensive, non-smoker 1K1C atenolol-treated and smoker 1K1C atenolol-treated rats. n = 6 for all groups. Median (25 th Percentile-75 th Percentile). *p < 0.05 vs non-smokers groups. ‡ p < 0.05 compared to basal values. of choice for hypertensive patients according to the American Heart Association (AHA, 9 , compared to felypressin, less often studied and not associated with the sympathetic autonomous nervous system 12 . Our data show that epinephrine maintained the same blood pressure responses, either in hypertensive smoker or hypertensive nonsmoker rats without atenolol treatment (Figures 2A and 3), but significantly increased heart rate (Figure 4A). However, in atenolol-treated non-smoker rats, the blood pressure response was higher compared with smokers. Considering all data about epinephrine safety in combination with local anesthetic use in the hypertensive 299