[Chronic heart failure: effect and evaluation of therapy with positive inotropic substances]

In congestive heart failure (CHF), even today, pharmacotherapy renders primarily only symptomatic improvement. The success of the treatment is basically dependent on the degree of functional myocardial impairment, that is, the condition of the inadequately treatable underlying disease. Treatment should be differentially oriented to the nature of the LV dysfunction as systolic or diastolic whereby the latter may account for 20 to 40% of those with CHF. In the case of diastolic LV dysfunction, because of the impaired compliance, vasodilators are not beneficial since small changes in volume may cause marked changes in filling pressures and vice versa. Additionally, inotropic substances are unfavorable since they further increase filling pressure and impedance, that is, diastolic LV function may become more compromised. For systolic LV dysfunction both vasodilators and positive inotropic substances can be employed. Some unsettled issues remaining include the appropriate time to begin treatment, the most suitable form of combined treatment and the best dosing regimens. Digitalis, as dobutamine, increases measured contractility; those seen to profit from digitalis include symptomatic patients with LV dilatation and impaired pump function as well as patients with supraventricular tachyarrhythmias. Prior to use of positive inotropic drugs in CHF, consideration should be given to whether favorable acute effects can be maintained during longterm treatment, adverse reactions such as arrhythmogenicity are acceptable, and the actions on myocardial oxygen balance. New nonglycoside positive inotropic agents which can also be administered orally, acutely improve hemodynamics; these include catecholamine derivatives, phosphodiesterase inhibitors (PDH). Both substance groups increase contractility but arrhythmogenicity as well, in general via increased concentrations of intracellular cyclic AMP. Reservations regarding the use of positive inotropic drugs for CHF have been supported by the results of studies showing that beta 1 agonists such as prenalterol and beta 2 agonists such as salbutamol or pirbuterol, due to down-regulation of beta-receptor density, are not capable of maintaining improved contractility during chronic treatment; intermittent dobutamine treatment resulted in higher mortality; beta-blockers without intrinsic sympathomimetic activity reduced mortality in patients with CHF after myocardial infarction while on use of beta-receptor blockers with intrinsic sympathomimetic activity, this favorable effect was not observed; during chronic PDH treatment, there was an unfavorable one-year mortality rate (50 to 100%); a controlled study with amrinone did not show a higher mortality than placebo. For most PDH, it is not known with certainty at which therapeutically effective dose the positive inotropic effect can best be realized and whether the acute hemodynamic effects are not predominantly attributable to the vasodilatory properties.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)