Pyridostigmine protects the soman challenged visual system

Technical Report · Thu May 13 04:00:00 EDT 1993

OSTI ID:7300592

Kirby, A W; Townsend, A T; Evans, G; Clarke, T; Pope, C

The studies described here were designed to evaluate the protective action of pyridostigmine (pyrido) on visual processing following a soman challenge to fully anesthetized adult cats. The visual evoked response (VER) was used as our response measure, and all drugs were given i.v. Following soman, VERs in the adult cat show a preferential loss in low spatial frequency information which is dose dependent, and can be reversed with atropine. In our preparation, a single dose of 4 ug/kg soman given i.v. results in about 80% inhibition of blood cholinesterase (ChE) and 80-90% reduction in the VER. There is no spontaneous recovery of either parameter over the next 24 hours. Pretreatment with pyrido greatly alters the effect of 4 ug/kg soman. Enough pyrido to inhibit 60% blood ChE caused no change in the VER. After soman, ChE activity recovered to about 60% (40% inhibition) within several hours. Over the same period of time, VER reduction recovered to about 30% inhibition rather than 80% without pyrido.

• Research Organization: Army Aeromedical Research Lab., Fort Rucker, AL (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7300592
• Report Number(s): AD-P-008832/8/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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