Effects of intravenous epinine administration on left ventricular systolic performance, coronary hemodynamics, and circulating catecholamines in patients with heart failure.

Twenty-six patients with mild to moderate heart failure were studied to determine the effects of epinine infusion (at a rate producing plasma levels similar to those measured after oral administration of 100 mg of the prodrug ibopamine) on left ventricular (LV) function (14 patients), and coronary flow and circulating catecholamines (12 patients). The only significant hemodynamic change at an infusion rate of 0.5 microgram/kg/min was a 9% (p less than 0.05) decrease in systemic vascular resistance (SVR). At an infusion rate of 1 microgram/kg/min (mean free epinine plasma levels 14.3 +/- 3.7 ng/ml), heart rate (HR), dP/dtmax (1,405 +/- 255 to 1,490 +/- 320 mm Hg, NS), (dP/dt)/DP40, and the relaxation rate remained unchanged, but the ejection fraction (EF) increased from 32 to 38% (p less than 0.001), cardiac output (CO) increased, and SVR decreased by 22% (p less than 0.05). In a separate group of 12 patients, epinine infusion at rates of 0.5-1 microgram/kg/min produced no significant changes in coronary blood flow or myocardial oxygen uptake. At these infusion rates, arterial norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) levels decreased slightly and arterial and coronary sinus epinephrine increased. In conclusion, epinine, at concentrations similar to those achieved during therapeutic use of ibopamine, had negligible effect on myocardial contractility and relaxation rate in heart failure patients. Cardiac pump function was improved by a decrease in SVR rather than by inotropic stimulation. The data also suggest that these low concentrations of epinine may modulate the sympathetic nervous system, but further studies are needed to determine whether this effect could have clinical significance.

Dopaminergic drugs in the management of chronic heart failure.

The importance of the dopaminergic system in heart failure is unknown and the therapeutic potential of orally active compounds stimulating dopaminergic receptors has yet to be established. Despite similar acute haemodynamic changes in heart failure and despite a comparable profile of receptor stimulation, oral levodopa (the prodrug of dopamine) and oral ibopamine (the prodrug of epinine) produce opposite effects on plasma norepinephrine and have different pharmacokinetics. Placebo-controlled studies indicate a beneficial effect of ibopamine on exercise tolerance in patients with heart failure, whereas invasive evaluation of left ventricular function indicate that at the doses used in these trials, ibopamine does not act as a positive inotropic drug but rather as a vasodilator. This suggests that DA1 and DA2 receptor stimulation may be beneficial in heart failure. Further studies are, however, needed to specify the exact role of this therapeutic approach in comparison with other agents, such as ACE inhibitors, also able to modulate neuro-humoral activation in heart failure.

Alterations in endocardial vascular resistance after reperfusion in a low flow, high demand model of ischemia: effects of dipyridamole and WEB-2086, a platelet-activating factor antagonist.

To determine if alterations in regional coronary vascular resistance could occur in the type of myocardial ischemia present in severe angina pectoris, regional perfusion and function were studied in 35 conscious sedated dogs. A stenosis producing severe hypokinesia of the perfused segment was created for 2 h on the left anterior descending coronary artery and 10 episodes of 1 min of high demand ischemia (atrial pacing at a rate sufficient to induce dyskinesia in the hypoperfused segment) were superimposed before reperfusion. The dogs were randomized into three treatment groups: control (n = 13), dipyridamole (n = 10) or WEB-2086 (n = 12), an antagonist of the effects of the endogenous platelet-activating factor. During stenosis, residual endocardial blood flow in the ischemic but nonnecrotic area averaged 0.72 +/- 0.14, 0.38 +/- 0.13 and 0.68 +/- 0.17 ml/min per g in the control, WEB-2086 and dipyridamole groups, respectively. Twenty-four hours after reperfusion, endocardial blood flow in the ischemic area was significantly lower in control dogs (1.04 +/- 0.15 ml/min per g) than in dogs treated with WEB-2086 (1.44 +/- 0.28 ml/min per g; p less than 0.03) or dipyridamole (3.00 +/- 0.83 ml/min per g; p less than 0.01). Accordingly, in control dogs, endocardial coronary vascular resistance in the ischemic area was increased after reperfusion from 85 +/- 11 to 124 +/- 27 mm Hg/(ml/min per g) (p less than 0.05) after 24 h. In contrast, coronary vascular resistance in the ischemic area remained unchanged in dogs receiving WEB-2086 (77 +/- 8 to 79 +/- 9 mm Hg/(ml/min per g); p = NS) and it decreased significantly in dogs receiving dipyridamole (72 +/- 8 to 44 +/- 8 mm Hg/(ml/min per g); p less than 0.01). Regional function after 24 h remained depressed in all three groups. These data indicate that low flow, high demand ischemia induces alterations in the subendocardial microvasculature. Such alterations in regional coronary vascular resistance might play a role in several forms of ischemic heart disease such as in severe angina, but they appear susceptible to improvement by therapeutic interventions that influence granulocyte and platelet activation.