Treatment of 6,7-diethoxy-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline (8) and its 1-methyl derivative 12 with hydrazonoyl halides 10 in the presence of Et 3 N in THF under reflux afforded the corresponding 5,6-dihydro-1,2,4-triazolo[3,4-a]isoquinolines 11 and 13, respectively, in high yield (Schemes 2 and 3). The products are formed via regioselective 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the intermediate nitrilimines 9 with the isoquinoline CN bond. Reaction of 6,7-diethoxy-3,4-dihydroisoquinoline-1-acetonitrile (4a) with ethyl a-cyanocinnamates 15 in the presence of piperidine in refluxing MeCN yielded benzo[a]quinolizin-4-ones 16 (Scheme 4). Under the same conditions, 12 and arylidene malononitriles 19 reacted to give benzo[a]quinolizin-4-imines 20 (Scheme 5). Instead of 15 and 19, mixtures of an aromatic aldehyde, and ethyl cyanoacetate or malononitrile, respectively, can be used in a one-pot reaction. Introduction. ± Within the class of fused isoquinolines with their cardiovascular [1], anti-inflammatory [2], and antidepressant [3] activities, [1,2,4]triazolo[3,4-a]isoquinolines are of considerable pharmaceutical and agricultural interest [4 ± 7]. Therefore, the synthesis of this ring system is an attractive goal. A convenient approach is the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of nitrilimines [8 ± 10], generated by elimination of HX from corresponding hydrazonoyl halides [11 ± 13], to the CN bond of 3,4-dihydroisoquinolines [12] [14]. It has been shown that derivatives of type 1 can be obtained in high yields with R 1 H or alkyl [5] [6] [15] [16]. On the other hand, 3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-1-acetonitriles and hydrazonoyl halides in refluxing THF in the presence of Et 3 N reacted to give pyrrolo[2,1-a]isoquinoline derivatives of type 2 via a cyclocondensation reaction [15] [17]. Spirocyclic adducts of type 3, which could have been formed by 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition with the enamine tautomer of 3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-1-acetamide, have never been observed [6] [15] [17] 3 ).The recently reported results of the reaction of hydrazonoyl halides with 3,4-dihydroisoquinolin-1-acetamide 4 in the presence of Et 3 N [17] are in pronounced contrast to those published earlier [6]. Whereas the reaction of 5 in refluxing THF yielded only the cyclocondensation product 6, the structure of the product obtained from the reaction in CH 2 Cl 2 at room temperature was described as the cycloadduct 1a