Vintners and vasodilators

Vintners and vasodilators: are French red wines more cardioprotective?

Alcoholic beverages have been consumed by numerous societies for thousands of years, their use often intertwined with religion and culture. Alcohol has both beneficial and detrimental effects on health. A beneficial effect of alcohol was first reported in 1786 by Heberden, who noted relief of angina pectoris by “spirituous cordials” (1). Using observational data, an inverse relationship between...

Antianginal Agents and Vasodilators

“We now know that the coronary blood vessels in the atherosclerotic heart already are dilated and that ordinary doses of dilator drugs do not significantly increase blood supply to the heart; instead, anginal pain is relieved by a reduction of cardiac consumption of oxygen.” Although vasodilators are used in the treatment of angina, a more sophisticated understanding of the hemodynamic response...

Pulmonary vasodilators.

Pulmonary vasodilators are an important treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension. They reduce pulmonary artery pressure; improve hemodynamic function; alter ventilation/perfusion matching in the lungs; and improve functional quality of life, exercise tolerance, and survival in patients with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension. This paper reviews the currently available pulmonary vasodil...

Vasodilators in pulmonary hypertension.

Vasodilators in congestive heart failure.

1. Sarnoff SJ, Berglund E: Neurohemodynamics of pulmonary edema. IV. Effect of systemic vasoconstriction and subsequent vasodilation on flow and pressures in systemic and pulmonary vascular beds. Am J Physiol 170: 588, 1952 2. Imperial ES, Levy MN, Zieske H Jr: Outflow resistance as an independent determinant of cardiac performance. Circ Res 9: 1148, 1961 3. Sonnenblick EH, Downing SE: Afterloa...