Antimuscarinic drugs

[raneynickel]

No pharmacology forum perse, but they are kind of physiological questions.

A long time ago in a land far away, Scopalamine/Atropine were used to prep a person for anaethesia to prevent secretions buildup in bronchial passages. One use in particular, was obstetric delivery.

Q1. Would there be significant transfer of the drug to the fetus? Would the baby have significant dry mouth? (the last part was a joke, kind of.)

"High therapeutic doses of atropine cause tachycardia in innervated and spontaneously beating hearts by blockade of vagal slowing"

Q2. Does this mean it can increase the rate only, but not restart a stopped heart?

[JackBean]

A1. If you have a fetus inside of you, than probably yes, it will go that as well, as everything, what is in mother's blood can pass to fetus' blood

[biohazard]

There's a placental barrier between the mother and the fetus, so not everything that's in the mother's blood can pass to the fetus. Mostly the transport happens via diffusion, so particles that can passively pass the membranes of the barrier can end up in the fetus' blood. These include most drugs and poisons as well, so in that light I'd also guess that the answer is 'yes'. Also some other stuff like viruses can get into the fetus through the barrier, though this happens more rarely (e.g. the HIV only infects some fetuses if the mother has the infection).

[JackBean]

There's a placental barrier between the mother and the fetus, so not everything that's in the mother's blood can pass to the fetus.

Sorry, I shall be more specific, 'all low-molecular substances can pass' basically