Introduction The potent loop diuretics have an unrivalled place in the management of acute left ventricular failure (LVF). Few situations can be envisaged in which one of these agents cannot be given, although the therapeutic response may in many cases be poor (e.g. in renal failure). There seems little need for alternative agents to fulfil the role of loop diuretics, although the vasodilators ...

Background Myocardial vasodilator reserve is an important surrogate marker of normal and abnormal cardiac physiology. Pharmacological vasodilator agents such as adenosine increase myocardial blood volume, which is expected to prolong the observed T1-relaxation. We explored the novel application of stress T1-mapping by assessing the response of myocardial T1 to the administration of adenosine in...

The use of pharmacologic agents in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension has not proved to be uniformly successful or predictable. One possible reason for the vagaries in response is that the pulmonary vascular lesions are not consistent. We examined the relation between the structure of the pulmonary resistance vessels in unexplained (primary) pulmonary hypertension and the response to pulmo...