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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

If the failing left ventricle could be given an effective push, other approaches to the treatment of heart failure would not be needed. We have inotropes only for short-term parenteral use. We have no safe inotrope for chronic oral use. The effect of digitalis is only feeble and the phosphodiesterase inhibitors seem to increase mortality from sudden death. Diuretics are dramatic for acute pulmonary oedema and the mainstay for chronic fluid retention but do not improve the pump and by reducing blood volume stimulate the renin angiotensin system to vasoconstriction, further fluid retention and hypokalaemia. Nitrates drop pre-load without reducing blood volume but tolerance is a problem and stroke volume does not increase. Reduction of afterload helps the failing ventricle to empty, the pull and output increases. The angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI) are now the cornerstone of heart failure treatment, reducing mortality in severe heart failure (CONSENSUS) and superior to standard vasodilator therapy (V-HeFT-2) at improving the survival of patients with mild to moderate heart failure. ACEI can reduce the incidence of ventricular ectopy and probably do this through improving left ventricular function, from decreasing sympathetic tone, reducing myocardial oxygen demand or increasing serum potassium but ACEI did not diminish the incidence of sudden death in the SOLVD trial despite reducing mortality. Disappointingly little improvement in exercise tolerance and persistence of chronic fatigue in heart failure concentrated attention on the periphery.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:The push, the pull and the periphery. 144 45

To assess the feasibility of introducing captopril in patients with chronic heart failure on an outpatient rather than an inpatient basis a double-blind placebo-controlled study was carried out to compare either 6.25 mg or 25.0 mg of captopril as a starting dose; followed by either incremental doses of 6.25, 12.5, and 25.0 mg (low dose group), or 25.0 mg 8 hourly (high dose group) respectively. Forty-one patients in a general medical ward within a large teaching hospital with moderate to severe, stable, diuretic-controlled chronic heart failure, who were not hyponatraemic, hypokalaemic or on a dose of diuretic greater than 120 mg of frusemide took part. No patient experienced symptomatic hypotension. Both doses of captopril produced a significant drop in blood pressure (BP), the magnitude of which was similar in both groups. The first dose-induced fall correlated significantly with subsequent dose-related reductions in BP. Therefore if a patient did not have a hypotensive response to the first dose of captopril he/she would be unlikely to have one with subsequent doses. In the group as a whole, the magnitude of the fall in BP after the first dose correlated significantly with starting plasma levels of angiotensin II, atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), aldosterone, and renin. However, on an individual basis, the two patients with the greatest fall in blood pressure did not have the most activated renin-angiotensin-aldosterone (RAA) system. This serves to emphasise the unpredictability of this response and the need to initiate therapy under clinical observation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Practical issues when initiating captopril therapy in chronic heart failure. What is the appropriate dose and how long should patients be observed? 146 41

Activation of the renin-angiotensin and sympathetic nervous systems in heart failure may result in altered baroreflex control of heart rate. To determine the specific effects of treatment with captopril on baroreceptor dysfunction in heart failure, baroreflex control of heart rate was measured in conscious rats with heart failure 6 weeks after ligation of the left coronary artery. Plasma norepinephrine was measured as a reflection of sympathetic nervous system activity. After bolus injections of phenylephrine (2-50 micrograms/kg) and nitroprusside (2-50 micrograms/kg), the arterial baroreflex was analyzed by fitting percentage of mean arterial pressure changes and heart rate changes to a logistic regression function. There were no differences in baroreflex function between normal and sham-operated rats. Plasma norepinephrine was increased (P < .05) in the heart-failure rats and did not change with captopril treatment. In untreated rats, heart failure increased (P < .05) the centering point by 900%, threshold by 243% and saturation by 89%, whereas decreasing (P < .05) the operational point by 73%. There was a decrease (P < .05) in the nitroprusside-related gain and an increase (P < .05) in phenylephrine-related gain, but the overall baroreflex gain was not changed. In heart-failure rats, captopril increased (P < .05) threshold, saturation and centering point and decreased (P < .05) operational point and nitroprusside- and phenylephrine-related gain abnormalities. The increase in operational point and decreases in threshold, saturation, centering point and phenylephrine-related gain were the results of a specific interactive effect of captopril in heart failure (P = .0033, .0176, .0509, .0217 and .0567, respectively).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Baroreflex control of heart rate in rats with heart failure after myocardial infarction: effects of captopril. 146 43

The high prevalence and poor prognosis of heart failure are a major concern. Hospitalization for heart failure accounts for a major proportion of health-care expenditure. A number of large clinical trials have been initiated to assess therapeutic strategies to improve prognosis for patients with this condition. Results from one of the largest and most recently completed of such studies, the Studies of Left Ventricular Dysfunction (SOLVD) trial, demonstrate that addition of the long-acting angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, enalapril to conventional therapy with diuretics and digoxin is associated with reduced rates of mortality and hospitalization for heart failure. Activation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) appears to play an important role in the pathogenesis of this condition. The effects of treatment with this ACE inhibitor may be related to the degree of RAAS suppression it affords.
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PMID:Therapeutic interventions to reduce rates of hospitalization and death in patients with heart failure: new clinical evidence. 147 52

Pathophysiological mechanisms are reviewed concerning the onset and the perpetuation of the clinical features of congestive heart failure. This syndrome is a severe condition of poor prognosis and bad life quality which in the last decades has reached, in the western industrial countries, the highest levels of general mortality, mainly due to the high prevalence of hypertensive and ischaemic myocardiopathies in the last years. To the clinical features of heart failure mainly contributes a deregulation of the physiological compensatory mechanisms contemporarily and concurrently activated following the primary deficiency of the heart pump function. In physiological conditions, following the myogenic adapting mechanisms reflex mechanisms intervene, activated by intracardiac and aortic and carotid-sinus mechanoreceptors following the variations in intracardiac and intravascular pressure and generally evoking negative feed-back effects. In patients with heart failure arterial high pressure mechanoreceptors respond to the reduction in effective arterial pressure thus provoking a deactivation of the tonic inhibition on the sympathetic cardiovascular drive. This leads to an activation of peripheral and renal vasoconstrictor tone, to a raised medullary catecholamine incretion, to heart rate and inotropism stimulation, and to an increase in pituitary gland ADH production as well as to an activation of renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Analogous vasoconstrictive, and sodium and water retentive effects can be elicited by endothelin produced by endothelial cells and found in high plasma levels in CHF. These excitatory effects, leading to a rise in systemic vascular resistance and to hydro-electrolytic retention with volume expansion, are not efficiently counteracted by the opposite effects triggered by cardiopulmonary vagally mediated mechanoreceptors activated by the raised cardiac filling pressure and leading to sympathetic nervous inhibition, peripheral and renal vasodilation, ADH and RAAS inhibition. Analogous effects should be provoked by the raised production, due to enhanced heart wall distension, of atrial natriuretic factor leading to vasodilation, natriuresis and diuresis. Reduced sensitivity of cardiopulmonary baroreceptors and lowered production of ANF due to structural cardiac changes could represent, according to most opinions, the main factors responsible for the prevailing sympathetic activation and hydro-saline retention in CHF. The activation of cardiopulmonary sympathetic positive-feed back afferents, could be also involved in the characteristic alteration of the vago-sympathetic balance in heart failure. The persistent reduction in heart pump function could lead to the instauration of vicious circles among the various regulatory systems and create an overcompensation condition.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:[The physiopathological aspects and new therapeutic approaches in cardiac-circulatory failure]. 149 59

We have given a series of incremental intravenous injections of captopril to ten patients with chronic cardiac failure. Small doses of captopril produced significant changes in pulmonary artery end-diastolic pressure and right atrial pressure, up to a total cumulative dose of captopril of 2.5 mg, after which further injections had no significant effect. There were large changes in systemic vascular resistance and blood pressure up to a cumulative dose of captopril of 5.0 mg, after which the injection of larger doses caused no further significant changes. Small doses of intravenous captopril produced large increases in plasma renin activity and plasma angiotensin I concentrations up to a total cumulative dose of captopril of 1.25 mg, after which there were no significant further changes in either plasma renin activity or plasma angiotensin I concentration. However the plasma concentration of angiotensin II fell more slowly, no further change being recorded after a total cumulative dose of captopril of 10 mg. These results suggest that plasma renin activity is not the only determinant of plasma angiotensin II concentrations.
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PMID:Lack of correlation between the acute haemodynamic response to intravenous captopril and plasma concentrations of angiotensin II in patients with chronic cardiac failure. 150 1

Electrolyte abnormalities are a frequent and potentially hazardous complication in patients with heart failure. This may be due to the pathophysiological alterations seen in the heart failure state leading to neurohumoral activation (stimulation of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, sympathoadrenergic stimulation), and due to the complications of therapy with diuretics, cardiac glycosides or ACE inhibitors. Patients with heart failure may exhibit hyponatremia due to a decrease in water excretion, which may be related to the enhanced release of both angiotensin and vasopressin and can be exaggerated by diuretic therapy. Along with potassium and calcium, magnesium influences cardiovascular function. Magnesium and potassium deficiencies play an important role in the development of cardiac arrhythmias. Magnesium is essential for the maintenance of intracellular potassium concentration. Although there are conflicting data regarding the prevalence of hypomagnesemia in patients with chronic heart failure (the values range from 7-37%), multiple studies have documented lower magnesium concentrations in patients with heart failure than in normal controls. As magnesium and potassium are mainly intracellular ions, measurements in serum or plasma are of limited value to assess magnesium status. There was no correlation between the intracellular electrolyte content and the electrolyte levels in plasma, either for mononuclear cells or erythrocytes or for myocardial and skeletal muscle. Loop diuretics (e.g. furosemide) are supposed to cause a substantial loss of both magnesium and potassium in the plasma and intracellular space. The potassium-sparing diuretics amiloride and triamterene are reported to also exert magnesium-sparing effects. Recently, ACE inhibitors have been documented to have important magnesium-conserving actions, possibly via their effect on glomerular filtration. Hyperkalemia, secondary to the use of ACE inhibitors in patients with heart failure, is well documented. Digoxin directly limits the renal tubular reabsorption of magnesium, therefore increasing magnesium excretion. Low magnesium and potassium concentrations increase cardiac glycoside toxicity. In contrast, elevated levels of magnesium decrease the sensitivity of human myocardium to antiarrhythmogenic actions of cardiac glycosides, without affecting maximally developed tension. Moreover, magnesium increases binding affinity of cardiac glycosides to the receptor. The antiarrhythmic action of magnesium is suspected to be mediated by a reduced sensitivity to electrophysiological changes induced by Ca2+, thus indicating Ca2+ antagonistic properties of magnesium. Magnesium deficiency has also been implicated in sudden death, notably in patients with congestive heart failure. Therefore, when treating congestive heart failure, one must consider how to prevent depletion of electrolytes or how to replete potassium and magnesium in deficiency states.
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PMID:Heart failure and electrolyte disturbances. 150 35

In recent years, captopril has attracted considerable clinical attention as an agent for use in treating heart failure. We administered 15 mg/kg of captopril or 1.5 mg/kg of enalapril to 5-week-old J-2-N cardiomyopathic hamsters for 10 or 15 weeks, and investigated the roles of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone and kallikrein-kinin systems in the onset and progress of cardiomyopathy. In the untreated group, serum creatine kinase levels increased in accordance with the progression of cardiomyopathy, but this increase was markedly inhibited by the administration of captopril. The rise in serum aldolase levels was similarly inhibited. Serum malondialdehyde levels were significantly reduced by the administration of captopril. ECG findings and the ventricular myosin isoenzyme pattern were also markedly improved by captopril. The improvement in all these parameters was less with enalapril. These differences between captopril and enalapril suggest that increases in tissue bradykinin and vasodilatory prostaglandins may play an important role in the beneficial effects of captopril.
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PMID:The effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors and the role of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system in J-2-N cardiomyopathic hamsters. 153 90

The renin system plays a critical role in hypertension as well as in the edematous states of heart failure, cirrhosis, and nephrosis. Properly performed measurements of plasma renin, with techniques now widely available, can be used as indicators of risk and of therapeutic strategies. The results of the plasma renin measurements are equally relevant whether they are high or low. The renin profile should be part of the routine workup of the patient with hypertension of any type or of the patient with an edematous disorder. Once the renin component of hypertension is established, management with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, such as perindopril, follows, for ACE inhibitors attack the pathophysiologic source, thus providing adequate perfusion and protection of vital organs. The role of renin's involvement in hypertensive states is elaborated, as well as that of the ACE inhibitors.
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PMID:A decade of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition. 158 Feb 77

Scorpion envenomation is a common medical problem and life hazard in many countries of the world. Scientific investigations have addressed the interrelationship between the stimulatory effects of the venom on the autonomic nervous system and adrenals and the subsequent effects of released transmitters on the cardiovascular system. A number of clinical cardiovascular syndromes may dominate the initial clinical presentation after envenomation: the syndromes usually vary with the age of the victim, the size of the offender and the season. Central nervous system dysfunction is seen in children but rarely observed in adults; if accompanied by severe hypertension the clinical picture is consistent with acute hypertensive encephalopathy. Heart failure, pulmonary edema or a shock-like syndrome has been observed in 25% and hypertension in 30% to 77% of our patients. The electrocardiographic abnormalities recorded in the majority of the patients after envenomation include an "acute myocardial infarction-like pattern." Rhythm disturbances are frequent but conduction abnormalities are rare. Echocardiographic, radionuclide and experimental hemodynamic observations have provided evidence that heart failure and pulmonary edema after envenomation are multifactorial with diminished systolic performance following the initially increased left ventricular contractility and decreased ventricular diastolic compliance. Clinical laboratory data reporting increased catecholamine metabolite excretion and elevated plasma renin and aldosterone are consistent with the stimulatory effects of the venom on the autonomic nervous system. Treatment, including our experience with vasodilators and calcium channel blockers, is reviewed.
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PMID:The cardiovascular system after scorpion envenomation. A review. 158 74


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