Search Tag: Levosimendan
Inotropic Agents for Heart Failure - Wishful Thinking?
2019 26 Aug
Summary: Calcium activation and calcium sensitivity in the failing myocardium. Historically, treatment of heart failure with inotropic agents started with the employment of extracts of foxglove, which contained a mixture of cardiac glycosides. With their low therapeutic margin due to a resulting ionic dysbalance though, cardiac glycosides... Read more
Use of levosimendan in the ICU
2019 10 Jan
Levosimendan is an inodilator that promotes cardiac contractility primarily through calcium sensitisation of cardiac troponin C and vasodilatation via opening of adenosine triphosphate-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels in vascular smooth muscle cells. The drug also exerts organ-protective effects through a similar effect on mitochondrial KATP... Read more
Is levosimendan beneficial to patients undergoing cardiac surgery?
2017 24 Oct
In patients undergoing cardiac surgery, the benefit of levosimendan in terms of survival was not shown in multicentre or in high-quality trials; however, levosimendan therapy was associated with reduced mortality in patients with preoperative ventricular systolic dysfunction, according to a new meta-analysis published in the journal Critical Care.... Read more
Levosimendan for Haemodynamic Support after Cardiac Surgery
2017 21 Mar
In patients who required perioperative hemodynamic support after cardiac surgery, low-dose levosimendan in addition to standard care did not result in lower 30-day mortality than placebo, according to a multicentre study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. See Also : Categorisation of Survival and Death after Cardiac Arrest Every... Read more