[Hemodynamic effects of computer-guided blood pressure-lowering with nitroprusside sodium during the postoperative...

The hypertension immediately after open heart surgery for coronary heart disease was chosen to evaluate the suitability of computer-controlled infusion sodium nitroprusside, to improve the circulatory state in heart failure by reducing the impedance to the left ventricular ejection. Sodium nitroprusside produced a prompt reduction of MAP to a preset level and a rise in cardiac index from an average of 2.1 +/- 0.3 to 2.4 +/- 0.4 when infused alone and to 3.1 +/- 0.5 1/min m2 (p less than 0.05, + 48%) after volume was infused to maintain LAP at a constant level to eliminate the effects of preload. The rise in cardiac index was associated with marked decrease in systemic vascular resistance from 2260 +/- 530 to 1415 +/- 280 and 1130 +/- 1130 +/- 270 dyns (p less than 0.005, 63%) respectively. The initial values of SVR correlated well with the fall of SVR (r = 0.78). Our results suggest that systemic vascular resistance is a strong indicator of the vascular responsiveness to vasodilation, the computer-controlled infusion of sodium-nitroprusside being suitable for the "titration" of the high systemic vascular resistance.