The use of digitalis in patients with chronic respiratory failure

The effect of slow digitalization was tested by radioisotopic angiocardiography in 33 patients with stable and compensated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); most of these had severe chronic respiratory failure (CRF). After a 10 days course of digoxin, 0.25 mg/die per os, both the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and the peak ejection rate (PER), initially slightly abnormal, improved significantly (t = -3.474, p less than 0.005; t = -2.438, p less than 0.025), while right ventricular ejection fraction (RVEF) and peak filling rate (PFR) did not. Ventricular diastolic interdependence and abnormal myocardial calcium kinetic are likely to account for PFR behaviour. Digoxin effects upon RVEF and LVEF suggest that the right ventricular systolic function is to some extent independent from the left one when blood gas derangement and abnormal thoracopulmonary mechanics are the major determinant of right ventricular afterload. The lack of significant correlation between digoxin effects on right and left ventricular function indices confirms this hypothesis. Digoxin can improve the left ventricular ejection phase indices, when these are initially abnormal, while its effect on RVEF is unpredictable.