Patients with chronic renal failure develop a cardiomyopathy characterized by marked diastolic dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy. Interestingly, they also have substantial increases in the circulating concentrations of digitalis like substances. Digitalis like substances produce reactive oxygen species as part of the signal cascade induced by binding to the sodium pump and patients, ...

To assess the possible role of digitalis in the etiology of arrhythmia following cardiopulmonary bypass, serum digoxin or digitoxin was determined serially by radioimmunoassay in 24 chronically digitalized patients undergoing open-heart surgery. After an initial fall during bypass probably secondary to intraoperative fluid, serum digitalis rebounded, rising to or surpassing the preoperative val...

Serial autocorrelation functions and histograms of R-R intervals in patients with atrial fibrillation, with and without digitalis, at rest and during exercise, were produced by a computer. At rest with and without digitalis the first and higher order coefficients did not differ from zero. During exercise (also with and without digitalis) only the first autocorrelation coefficient became slightl...

T HERE HAS BEEN considerable interest in whether or not changes in the thyroid state modify the effectiveness of digitalis. A number of reports have suggested that patients with hyperthyroidism associated with congestive heart failure or atrial fibrillation are relatively unresponsive to the usual doses of digitalis.1-8 Others have indicated, however , that these patients may respond to the ord...

Amongst a series of cases of partial heart block, collected over a period of years, there were some in which treatment with digitalis was mainly or partly responsible. This group involves some special problems that seem worth separate consideration. The slow pulse, even as slow as 35 in a minute, after the administration of digitalis was one of the original observations of Withering (1785). Muc...

One hundred fifty patients with potentially life-threatening digitalis toxicity were treated with digoxin-specific antibody fragments (Fab) purified from immunoglobulin G produced in sheep. The dose of Fab fragments was equal to the amount of digoxin or digitoxin in the patient's body as estimated from medical histories or determinations of serum digoxin or digitoxin concentrations. The younges...

Serial autocorrelation functions and histograms of R-R intervals in patients with atrial fibrillation, with and without digitalis, at rest and during exercise, were produced by a computer. At rest with and without digitalis the first and higher order coefficients did not differ from zero. During exercise (also with and without digitalis) only the first autocorrelation coefficient became slightl...

RECENTLY, we encountered an unusual response to digitalis. A patient with rheumatic valvular disease, congestive heart failure, and atrial fibrillation exhibited simultaneously evidence regarded by some as due to underdigitalization and by others as the result of overdigitalization. During mild exertion, the ventricular rate accelerated from 70 to 140 beats per minute with development of a puls...

The effect of digitalis in 21 patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome was anlayzed with respect to the ventricular response during atrial fibrillation and antegrade and retrograde refractory periods of accessory pathways. Digitalis shortened the cycle length of the most rapid ventricular response (shortest R-R) (i.e., increased the ventricle response) in 6/21 patients, increased the cycle ...