TREATMENT of cardiac failure usually includes several therapeutic maneuvers that are used concurrently in order to restore the state of compensation: (1) elimination of the overload due to exercise or emotional stress, which can be accomplished by rest, (2) enhancemenat of performance of the heart by the administration of cardiotonic drugs, of which digitalis is the principal one, (3) decrease ...

Glucagon has a positive inotropic effect in normal hearts but is ineffective in animals with chronic cardiac failure. To assess directly the influence of glucagon on the human myocardium, we measured contractility and activation of adenyl cyclase, the enzyme thought to mediate the inotropic action of glucagon, in left ventricular papillary muscles obtained from 12 patients at mitral valve repla...

BACKGROUND Right ventricular apical (RVA) pacing creates abnormal left ventricular contraction, hypertrophy, and reduced pump function. The adverse effects of ventricular desynchronization may explain the association of RVA pacing with an increased risk of heart failure hospitalization (HFH) in clinical trials. METHODS AND RESULTS Baseline and postimplantation variables were used to predict H...

SIR,-Your interesting leading article on cardiac failure and folate deficiency (24 January, p. 188) commented on the possible causes of this association, and factors like impaired dietary intake and gastrointestinal malabsorption were mentioned. A contributory cause could well be excessive folate loss in the urine. Urinary folate excretion has been poorly studied, but we recently reported an un...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Neonates with vein of Galen aneurysmal malformations (VGAMs) presenting with cardiac failure have high morbidity and mortality, and outcomes are significantly better in those presenting in later childhood. Neurologic outcomes in survivors are perceived to be uniformly poor, which may lead to the neonate being denied treatment. We assessed outcomes of modern neonatal inten...

Abstract Background Iron overload is the main transfusion related side effects in patients with transfusion dependent hemoglobinopathies. Severe iron deposition in tissues leads to organ dysfunction. Many organs can be affected such as heart, liver, and endocrine organs. Cardiac failure and liver fibrosis are the consequent of Iron overload in transfusion dependent hemoglobinopathy. Magne...

It is generally believed that the erythrocyte sedimentation (E.S.R.) is retarded and tends to fall to normal when decompensation occurs in rheumatic fever and other heart diseases known to be associated with elevated values.2' 4, 5, 7. 9 Observations by McGinnis and co-workers,6 who excluded patients who presented evidence of other conditions known to lead to elevation of the E.S.R., however, d...

Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that the cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex is enhanced in dogs with experimental heart failure. The aim of the present study was to determine if the central gain of the cardiac sympathetic afferent reflex was also enhanced in dogs with heart failure. Fifteen dogs with pacing-induced heart failure were used in this study. Seventeen sham-operated ...

An impairment of cardiac norepinephrine reuptake through the neuronal norepinephrine transporter promotes depletion of cardiac norepinephrine stores and local cardiac sympathetic activation in heart failure. Nerve growth factor regulates differentiation and survival of adult sympathetic cells and is decreased in failing hearts. We hypothesized that injection of nerve growth factor into stellate...

In cardiac and skeletal muscle, the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) plays a central role in the contraction relaxation cycle of the muscle by virtue of its ability to regulate the intracellular free Ca'+ concentration [Ca'+],. Ca'+ release from the SR increases [Ca'+] (10`mol/L), thus inducing contraction, whereas Ca2` uptake by the SR reduces [Ca'+] (=10-7 mol/L), producing muscle relaxation. In c...