Hindawi Publishing Corporation he Scientiic World Journal Volume 2013, Article ID 808731, 4 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/808731 Research Article Cardiac Safety of Diclofenac at a Single Dose in Ram Ayse Er, 1 Burak Dik, 1 Orhan Corum, 2 and Gul Cetin 3 1 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Selcuk, 42075 Konya, Turkey 2 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Dicle, 21280 Diyarbakir, Turkey 3 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Mehmet Akif Ersoy, 15030 Burdur, Turkey Correspondence should be addressed to Ayse Er; aer@selcuk.edu.tr Received 14 August 2013; Accepted 5 September 2013 Academic Editors: W. S. Aronow and H. Oguz Copyright © 2013 Ayse Er et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Nonsteroidal anti-inlammatory drugs are frequently prescribed drug group in human and veterinary medicine. However, diclofenac, a traditional nonsteroidal anti-inlammatory drug, related to cardiotoxicity is reported, and blood cardiac damage markers may increase within the irst hours ater damage. he aim of the current research was to determine the efect of diclofenac on the blood cardiac damage markers. Single dose of diclofenac (2.5 mg/kg, IM) was injected to 6 rams. Blood samples were collected in before (0 hour, control) and 6 hours ater injection. Speciic (troponin I, and creatine kinase-MB) and nonspeciic (lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase) blood cardiac damage marker concentrations, routine biochemical (hepatic damage, renal damage, lipid metabolism, glucose, and phosphorus) parameters, and hemogram values were measured. Diclofenac increased ( < 0.05) speciic (troponin I) and nonspeciic cardiac (lactate dehydrogenase, aspartate aminotransferase), hepatic (aspartate aminotransferase, alkaline phosphatase, and alanine aminotransferase), and muscular (creatine kinase) damage markers and high density lipoprotein level, while it decreased ( < 0.05) low density lipoprotein level. Moreover, diclofenac decreased ( < 0.05) white blood cell counts and increased ( < 0.05) red blood cell counts. In conclusion, it may be stated that diclofenac shows slight cardiotoxicity, whereas it may show potent hepatic and muscular damage efects at an intramuscularly single dose in sheep. hereby, repeated injections of diclofenac may be more harmful in sheep. 1. Introduction Nonsteroidal anti-inlammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are most prescribed drugs in human and veterinary medicine that provide anti-inlammatory, antipyretic, analgesic, antispas- modic, and anticoagulant efects. Diclofenac (2-(2,6-dichlo- ranilino) phenylacetic acid), a phenylacetic acid derivative NSAID, is one of the most frequently prescribed nonselective NSAIDs worldwide, and it has strong analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inlammatory efects. It is believed that diclofenac shows its action via inhibition of prostaglandin synthesis by inhibiting cyclooxygenase (COX) and lipoxy-genase enzyme pathway. Intravenous, intramuscular, oral, suppository, transdermal patch, and gel forms of diclofenac are available in markets for human and veterinary medicine. It is commonly used to treat bone-muscle traumas, osteoar- thritis, rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, colic, and infectious hyperthermia [1–5]. Most frequently used NSAIDs worldwide have serious side efects, such as death. It has been reported that the application of the drugs in this group may be risky for cardiac and newborn infant patients as well as healthy individuals [4– 6]. Moreover, it has been stated that treatment with NSAIDs has serious side efects such as gastrointestinal ulceration or bleeding, liver and kidney damage, allergic reactions, myocardial infarction, and cardiac sudden death [3, 7–10]. It has been indicated that the application of diclofenac, a nonselective NSAID, may cause cardiovascular problems and increase myocardial infarction risk or may be more risky for patients with coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction [4, 6, 10, 11]. However, it has been postulated that parameters detected in blood as a marker of cardiac damage (troponin I (TI), creatine kinase-MB (CK-MB), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate aminotransferase (AST)) may increase in the irst 4–6 hours following the damage and this approach may be estimated for cardiac