[Treatment of chronic congestive failure with vasodilators (acute trial with prazosin and erythrityl tetranitrate)]

An acute clinical experiment was carried out with 34 patients with chronic refractory cardiac insufficiency with stasis and idiopathic dilating (stasis) cardiomyopathy so as to follow up the hemodynamic effect of the vasodilators prazosin and erythrityl tetranitrate. The values of the central and peripheral vascular hemodynamics were followed up before and one hour after the peroral intake of 2 mg prazosin and half an hour after the peroral intake of 40 mg erythrityl tetranitrate. The results indicate that a statistically significant decrease of the arterial pressure and the total peripheral vascular resistance developed after prazosin intake. The systolic arterial pressure was decreased from 121,80 +/- 3,52 to 102,40 +/- 3,71 (p less than 0,001) and the diastolic--from 80,20 +/- 2,41 to 68,20 +/- 2,56 (p less than 0,01). The values of the total peripheral vascular resistance were decreased from 2629,65 +/- 174 to 1865,53 +/- 153 (p less than 0,001). The indices of the pump function--Stl and SI were increased (Stl from 22,74 +/- 1,85 to 30,37 +/- 2,14 with p less than 0,025 and Sl--from 1,90 +/- 0,08 to 2,64 +/- 0,19; p less than 0,02). The indices of the pressure in the left ventricular filling had no statistically significant change. After the administration of erythrityl tetranitrate, a statistically significant improvement of the indices of the cardiac output was also observed as well as of the total peripheral vascular resistance. The systolic index grew from 1,74 +/- 0,20 to 2,70 +/- 0,16 (p less than 0,01); stroke index--from 18,35 +/- 2,82 to 32,99 +/- 2,88 (p less than 0,01), and the total peripheral vascular resistance was decreased from 2897,0 +/- 186,0 to 1556,0 +/- 154,0 (p less than 0,001). Prazosin and erythrityl tetranitrate led to a considerable decrease of the counter load of the heart and improvement of the pump function of left ventricle in an acute experiment in case of chronic cardiac insufficiency with stasis.