To examine possible augmentation of the effects of isosorbide dinitrate by salbutamol, haemodynamic measurements were made in 10 patients with severe chronic congestive cardiac failure who received isosorbide dinitrate 2.5 to 25 mg sublingually and salbutamol 4 to 12 mg orally, alone and in combination. Isosorbide dinitrate reduced mean left ventricular filling pressure from 29 to 18 mmHg and i...

The haemodynamic effects of dopamine and isosorbide dinitrate alone and in combination were studied in 8 patients with chronic congestive cardiac failure. In 7 patients dopamine, 6,tg/kg per min, increased mean cardiac index from 2-0 to 3 0 1/min per m2 (P < 0.0005); mean stroke volume index from 20 to 27 ml/m2 (P < 0.0025), and mean left ventricular stroke work index from 14 to 20 g M/M2 (P < ...

BACKGROUND Readmission is responsible for a large proportion of inpatient care costs in adult congenital heart disease. There are, however, few data available to identify at-risk patients or to suggest strategies for intervention to prevent rehospitalization. METHODS AND RESULTS We conducted an analysis of admissions in patients over the age of 18 years with a 3-digit International Classifica...

Congestive heart failure as a cause of acute liver failure is rarely documented with only a few cases. Although the pathophysiology is poorly understood, there is rising evidence, that low cardiac output with consecutive reduction in hepatic blood flow is a main causing factor, rather than hypotension. In the setting of acute liver failure due to congestive heart failure, clinical signs of the ...

Studies from the USA have reported that sleep apnoea is common in congestive heart failure (CHF), with Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR) being the most frequent type of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) in these patients. Within the present study, the authors sought to assess the prevalence and type of SDB among CHF patients in Germany. A total of 203 CHF patients participated in this prospective ...

BACKGROUND Outcome prediction is important in the clinical decision-making process. Artificial neural networks (ANN) have been used to predict the risk of post-operative events, including survival, and are increasingly being used in complex medical decision making. We aimed to use ANN analysis to estimate predictive factors of in-hospital mortality (IHM) in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) ...

The contribution of the renin-angiotensin system to the cardiovascular response to exercise was studied in 12 patients with congestive heart failure. The haemodynamic effects of captopril were measured at rest and during supine bicycle exercise. After captopril administration, resting systemic vascular resistance fell by 26.6% and mean blood pressure by 16.7% and cardiac index increased by 19.7...