Haemodynamic effects of diuretics in heart failure.

The organic mercurials have been known to have a diuretic effect since the sixteenth century, but their use for treating dropsy first began in 1920 in Vienna, when it was realised that a mercury compound being used to treat syphilis greatly increased urine output. The direct descendant of that compound was mersalyl, which was to remain the drug of choice until 1951, when the carbonic anhydrase inhibitors were introduced. One reason for the slow development of interest in the diuretics was the reluctance of the medical profession to accept that they