Objectives To compare the risk of death and recurrent congestive heart failure in elderly patients prescribed celecoxib, rofecoxib, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and to determine whether there are class differences between celecoxib and rofecoxib. Design Population based retrospective cohort study. Setting Databases of hospital discharge summaries and prescription drug claim...

OBJECTIVE To measure plasma concentrations of noradrenaline and neuropeptide Y-like immunoreactivity in relation to cardiac function in patients with congestive heart failure. DESIGN Retrospective analysis of plasma noradrenaline concentrations and neuropeptide Y-like immunoreactivity in the arterial and coronary circulations, in patients with a high or low ejection fraction (31.3% (1.3%) or ...

Seven patients with severe chronic congestive cardiac failure secondary to ischaemic heart disease performed submaximal supine exercise before and after 5 mg sublingual isosorbide dinitrate at the time of cardiac catheterisation. Exercise before isosorbide dinitrate produced a poor response in left ventricular performance. After isosorbide dinitrate this response was significantly improved. Com...

The haemodynamic effects of dobutamine, a new synthetic catecholamine, were studied in 12 patients with severe congestive heart failure and compared with those of dopamine in 10 clinically similar patients. Dobutamine produced a distinct increase in cardiac index, while lowering left ventricular end-diastolic pressure and leaving mean aortic pressure unchanged. Dopamine also significantly impro...

The comparative haemodynamic effects of oral prazosin hydrochloride and hydralazine were evaluated in 11 patients with chronic congestive heart failure. The maximum total dose of prazosin received by an individual varied up to 25 mg. Ten patients received a maximum of 75 mg and one received 50 mg of hydralazine at six-hour intervals. There was no significant change in heart rate with either dru...

Acebutolol ('Sectral'), a cardioselective beta-blocking drug, was administered intravenously in a dose of 25 mg to 10 patients with congestive cardiomyopathy. All of them were in a stable condition on antifailure regimens. The drug resulted in a statistically significant decline in left ventricular contractility as judged by peak left ventricular dP/dT and the contractility index. The mean aort...

Five uraemic patients who developed progressive cardiac failure with clinical evidence of congestive cardiomyopathy at the start or during haemodialysis treatment were studied. The diagnosis of cardiomyopathy, for which there was no apparent cause, was confirmed by angiocardiographic and haemodynamic studies. These showed a significant increase in left ventricular end-diastolic volume over norm...

Echocardiograms of ten patients with congestive cardiomyopathy were compared to those of three groups of patients: (1) 17 with no catheterization or angiographic evidence of cardiac disease; (2) 19 with 75% or greater obstruction of one or more coronary arteries (CAD); and (3) 8 with previous myocardial infarction and congestive heart failure (CAD-CHF). Echocardiographic values of interest incl...

Continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration (CAVH) was carried out in 8 patients with refractory congestive heart failure. All these patients had heart failure and oliguria for over 24 hours and intensive treatment with digitalis, diuretics, catecholamines and vasodilators was prescribed. Hemodynamics were followed closely during CAVH. During CAVH, pulmonary arterial pressure and pulmonary capillar...

Several diseases with autoimmune features have recently been shown to be characterised by defects in suppressor cell immune regulation. Aberrant immune mechanisms of primary importance have been sought but not yet demonstrated for idiopathic congestive cardiomyopathy and rheumatic heart disease. We tested whether defective immunoregulatory function might explain certain features of these diseas...