Long term survival of class IV heart failure patients treated with oral amrinone

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of amrinone on the survival of a group of 51 Class IV congestive heart failure patients as well as changes in exercise capacity, hemodynamics, and clinical status. In those 22 patients able to exercise before treatment with amrinone, exercise duration increased from 4.15 minutes to 6.58 minutes on the treadmill. In those 19 patients first treated with intravenous amrinone, there was an increase in cardiac index from 1.9 to 2.6 L/min/m2. Thirty seven patients (72%) died in the follow-up period, most in the first four months. In this group of Class IV heart failure patients, there were two subsets of patients: one with a stable course (Group I) and one with a malignant course (Group II). The Group II patients accounted for much of the mortality in the follow-up. Patients with coronary artery disease did worse than patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathies. There was no evidence that amrinone shortened or prolonged the survival of these Class IV patients.