Author/Authors :
Nanas، نويسنده , , John N. and Papazoglou، نويسنده , , Panagiotis P. and Terrovitis، نويسنده , , John V. and Kanakakis، نويسنده , , John and Dalianis، نويسنده , , Argirios and Tsolakis، نويسنده , , Elias and Tsagalou، نويسنده , , Eleftheria P. and Agrios، نويسنده , , Nikolaos and Christodoulou، نويسنده , , Kostantinos and Anastasiou-Nana، نويسنده , , Maria I.، نويسنده ,
Abstract :
A 24-hour infusion of levosimendan was added to dobutamine in 18 patients (aged 63 ± 9 years) hospitalized for management of decompensated New York Heart Association functional class IV heart failure refractory to a continuous 24-hour infusion of dobutamine (10 μg/kg/min) and furosemide (10 mg/hour); the primary study end point was a ≥40% increase in cardiac index and a ≥25% decrease in pulmonary capillary wedge pressure compared with pretreatment measurements.The primary end point was reached in one of the patients treated with dobutamine alone versus 7 patients (39%) treated with levosimendan and dobutamine combined (p = 0.008), whereas at 24 hours, the combined treatment was associated with a 0.76 ± 0.78 L/min/m2 (p = 0.001) mean increase in cardiac index and a 6.4 ± 7.3 mm Hg (p = 0.002) mean decrease in pulmonary capillary wedge pressure compared with measurements obtained after 24 hours of dobutamine infusion alone. Symptoms were alleviated in all patients, and all but 3 were discharged from the hospital.
