Aim To investigate the cardiotoxicity of propofol and thiopental. Methods 4day-old contracting neonatal primary myocardial cells obtained from 2-to 3-day-oldWistar rats were divided into 5 groups, with normal contrast group, and the cellcultures in groups PL, PH, TL and TH, were treated with propofol(3 ? 10-5 and3 ? 10-4 mol? L) and thiopental (1 ? 10-5 and 1 ? 10-4 mol?L) for 8 h.The con-tractility and morphology of the cells were observed and the cytoplasmic enzyme(LDH, AST, CK and ALP) release content of myocardial cell and the concentrationof electrolytes (K +, Na +, Cl - and Ca2+ ) in the medium were measured 8 h afterintravenous anesthetics administration. Results In groupPH and TL decreasedsignificantly (P