New directions in the treatment of heart failure: some paradoxical observations

The alpha-agonist drug phenylephrine has been generally considered to be contraindicated in patients with heart failure for the reason that increased afterload produced by the vasoconstriction should decrease ventricular function; the beta-adrenergic blocking drugs generally have been considered to be contraindicated in heart failure because of the dependence of the failing heart on beta-sympathetic agonism; the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors have been indicted recently as causing undesirable cardiovascular depression in patients for coronary artery bypass surgery. Yet recently, phenylephrine has been shown to have positive cardiac inotropic effects in a variety of experimental preparations including intact humans; the beta-adrenergic blocking drugs have been shown to be therapeutically effective in treating patients with chronic congestive heart failure (CHF); and the "gold standard" for treating chronic CHF at present are the ACEI. Consequently, the clinician caring for patients with cardiac disease needs to reevaluate the use of classic drugs whose original pharmacological properties may either have changed because of advances in technology or may be producing effects that were unanticipated previously.