In a previous paper (1) it was shown that digitalis in dogs caused a fall in venous pressure at the time when the minute volume flow of blood was diminished. This fall in venous pressure, and hence in return flow of blood to the heart, was correlated with a peripheral vasocontrictor action of the digitalis. It was indicated that constriction of the hepatic veins was the major factor in causing ...

A comparison was made of the time of onset and duration of labour in 22 women taking digitalis and in 64 women who were not. Spontaneous labour occurred more than one week earlier and lasted about half as long in the patients taking digitalis. The likely explanation for this difference is that digitalis has a direct action on the myometrium.

To examine whether digitalis use is associated with an increased mortality in certain highrisk subsets of patients with coronary artery disease, we analyzed the data of 14,547 patients in the Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS) registry who had significant coronary artery stenosis (¢ 70% narrowing) and received medical treatment for their disease. At the time of entry, 2600 patients (18%) Were...

To examine whether digitalis use is associated with an increased mortality in certain highrisk subsets of patients with coronary artery disease, we analyzed the data of 14,547 patients in the Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS) registry who had significant coronary artery stenosis (¢ 70% narrowing) and received medical treatment for their disease. At the time of entry, 2600 patients (18%) Were...

The toxic effects of digitalis are attributable in part to poisoning of the enzyme Na+-K+ ATPase and in part to the interactions of digitalis with the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. Additional modifiers of the toxic effects of digitalis include the concentrations of ions such as K+ and Ca2+, the age of the subject and the extent and type of cardiac disease. At the cellular ele...

INTRODUCTION 1985 marks the bicentenary of the publication of William Withering's account of his studies on the clinical use of digitalis.' The first part of the present article reviews the use of digitalis before Withering and also the impact that his work had on the use of digitalis in the next hundred years or so. The final two sections deal with work in the present century concerning the cl...

W HILE animal studies have demonstrated that digitalis enhances the force of contraction of the nonfailing heart,'X the effects of this agent on ventricular contractility of the normal human heart are as yet unsettled. In the absence of clinical heart failure, digitalis administration is associated with either a slight decrease -9 or no significant change in cardiac output.10-'4 Such observatio...

PREVIOUS studies on the effect of digitalis on the hypothermic heart have indicated that the arrhythmic effects of hypothermia and digitalis are antagonistic. Those experiments were primarily intended to study the effect of digitalization on hypothermia using pharmacological doses of digitalis. In the experiments reported herein, the procedure was reversed in that it was thought to be of value ...