Background: The primary cause of death globally is cardiovascular disease, which is primarily caused by coronary artery disease. Reducing resting heart rate has therefore become a key objective in the treatment of patients with cardiovascular disease. High resting heart rate is linked to increased cardiovascular and overall mortality in the general population, as well as in patients with coronary artery disease and chronic heart failure.

Aim: to evaluate the prophylactic effects of ivabradine on myocardial ischemia reperfusion injury in rats in comparison with bisoprolol.

Methods: The study was done on 40 adult male albino rats (10 rats in each group) that were divided into Sham-operated control group, control positive (diseased) Group, ivabradine-pretreated group, bisoprolol-pretreated group. Blood pressure, heart rate, T wave voltage, biochemical tests and infarct size were measured.

Results: Bisoprolol pretreatment reduced the serum level CK-MB compared to the control group. Meanwhile, pretreatment with ivabradine produced more decrease in the serum level CK-MB compared to the control group. Oral pretreatment with ivabradine decreased the percentage of the infarct size as compared to control group. In the bisoprolol-pretreated group, the infarct size of the left ventricle was lower than that of control but higher than ivabradine-pretreated group.

Conclusion: It can be concluded from the previous findings that ivabradine possesses protective effect against I/R injury in rats, as evidenced by significant decrease of each of the % of infarct size, T-wave voltage, CK-MB. Thus, ivabradine can be used if bisoprolol is contraindicated.