[Differential use of vasodilators in various types of cardiac insufficiency]

Vasodilators (captopril or nifedipine) were administered to 85 patients with stage IIA-IIB circulatory insufficiency. Of them 36 had dilated cardiomyopathy (DC), 30 ischemic heart disease (IHD), 19 suffered from essential hypertension (EH). Morphofunctionally, myocardial lesion was of a dilated type in 50 patients (36 DC, 10 IHD and 4 EH cases), of a hypertrophic type in 18 patients (4 IHD, 14 EH cases), of a mixed type in 17 IHD patients. The response to acute tests with 25 mg captopril and 20 mg nifedipine along with clinicohemodynamic results of 3-5-week course treatment with the drugs point to noticeable advantage of captopril in the dilated lesion (18 responders of 26 patients), while nifedipine in the hypertrophic type (10 responders of 10 patients). In mixed-type IHD patients both drugs displayed high efficacy.