Intermittent dobutamine therapy in patients with advanced congestive heart failure

Congestive heart failure is an increasingly common condition carrying a poor prognosis and a decay in the quality of life. Usually frequent and lengthy hospitalizations are required with heart failure, with obvious discomfort for the patient and increase in health costs. Heart transplantation is rarely possible due to shortage of donors. Thus, improvement of pharmacological strategies for the management of these patients is desirable. The present study evaluated the effects of intermittent dobutamine infusion in elderly patients (mean age 75.9 years), hospitalized for advanced (NYHA, 1973, class IV) congestive heart failure of ischemic etiology. Dobutamine infusions of 2, 4 and 6 μg/kg/min for 36 h every 2–4 weeks were randomly prescribed to 24 subjects, who were then followed up every three months for an average of ten months. Data on mortality, cardiovascular events and NYHA (1973) functional classifications were systematically collected. Our study shows that while in this series of patients mortality remained high (50% at 12 months), there was an improvement in the NYHA-classification during the follow-up, and a decrease in the need for hospitalization. In addition, side effects were relatively rare, with only two patients interrupting dobutamine treatment. We conclude that intermittent dobutamine infusion is a reasonable treatment option in elderly patients with congestive heart failure unresponsive to conventional treatments.