E. Udvary

Hemodynamic effects of calcium-sensitizing agents.

Over the last few years the development of calcium-sensitizing agents has led to a new approach to the treatment of congestive heart failure (CHF). These novel inotropic agents act directly on the contractile protein systems and correct the reduced responsiveness of the myofilaments to calcium. The resultant favorable inotropic activity of this new class of cardiotonic agents may represent an important pharmacologic approach to the future treatment of acute and chronic CHF. This brief review summarizes the cardiotonic effects of calcium sensitizers, with particular emphasis on the hemodynamic actions of these drugs in various in vitro and in vivo heart preparations. We also attempt to draw conclusions for the therapeutic exploitation of these agents and delineate their possible role in the therapy of CHF.

Neue Entwicklungen der antiarrhythmischen Therapie

Die Autoren sind sich der Schwierigkeit und Komplexitat des im Titel angesprochenen Problems bewust. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist keineswegs, einen vollstandigen Uberblick uber kunftige Perspektiven der Erforschung neuer antiarrhythmischer Substanzen zu geben, sondern sie ist ein Versuch, die Aufmerksamkeit auf neue Entwicklungen zu lenken, die in Zukunft von Bedeutung sein konnen.

New Trends in Protection from Life-Threatening Arrhythmias

Statistics show that in industrialised countries nearly one-third of the mortality among men under the age of 65 years is due to sudden cardiac death brought about mostly by primary ventricular fibrillation following acute myocardial infarction. These statistics do not include the severe consequences of the seemingly less dangerous supraventricular arrhythmias such as cerebral embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation, exhaustion of the heart due to paroxysmal tachycardia, etc. These facts justify the unceasing efforts to find new ways for the prevention and treatment of cardiac rhythm disturbances. The currently used anti-arrhythmic drugs have very narrow margins of safety, and the cardiologist can hardly evade the problem of treating arrhythmias without undue risk. It is hardly surprising that the search for new effective anti-arrhythmic agents with a broad margin of safety remains one of the most important endeavours in cardiovascular drug research.