[Development of a porcine experimental model of alcoholic intoxication].

Despite important epidemiologic suggestions that alcohol causes a variety of cardiovascular abnormalitíes, and particularly cardiac arrhythmias, the demonstration of this causal effect in animal models is still lacking. Previous open-chest models, heavily instrumented and using epicardial stimulation have failed to demonstrate such causal effect. We developed a porcine, closed-chest model with sedation, a rigorous control of venous alcohol concentration and endocardial electrical stimulation, in a multidisciplinary framework. In this model, we observed that the infusion of alcohol facilitated atrial tachyarrhythmias. This model is available to study a variety of alcohol effects "in vivo", in a controlled fashion.