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Clinical Experience with Amrinone in Patients with Advanced Congestive Heart Failure
Author(s) -
KINNEY EVLIN L.,
CARLIN BRIAN,
BALLARD JAMES O.,
BURKS JOHN M.,
HALLAHAN WILLIAM F.,
ZELIS ROBERT
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
the journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.92
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1552-4604
pISSN - 0091-2700
DOI - 10.1002/j.1552-4604.1982.tb02632.x
Subject(s) - amrinone , medicine , heart failure , cardiology , cardiac index , blood pressure , vascular resistance , anesthesia , cardiac output
To examine the efficacy of chronic amrinone therapy, the drug was administered to 12 patients with advanced congestive heart failure on average for 27.9 days. The majority of patients had a persistent increase in cardiac index and a persistent decrease in systemic vascular resistance. A decrease in pulmonary arterial diastolic pressure was observed after oral amrinone administration in three patients. However, changes in pulmonary arterial pressure were not consistent in response to intravenous administration of the drug. Thrombocytopenia occurred in four patients, hypogeusia was noted by three patients, and dysosmia developed in two patients. The cumulative survival of the amrinone patients was significantly poorer than that of a second group of patients with congestive heart failure having similar symptoms. These findings indicate that there is a subset of patients with congestive heart failure who do not benefit from chronic amrinone administration and that in such patients its use (especially when given concomitantly with potentially toxic and hypotentsive drugs) should be extremely guarded.