[Cor pulmonale and cor pulmonale decompensation--what is the future of these terms?].

Decompensated cor pulmonale is a clinical syndrome manifested by signs of congestive heart failure in pulmonary disease. The authors emphasize that the haemodynamic characteristic of the syndrome differs substantially from the classical picture of chronic heart failure: the cardiac output is usually normal at rest and sometimes even during exercise, signs of impaired contractility of the right ventricle are absent and the effect of cardiac glycosides is minimal. It is possible that the clinical syndrome of decompensated cor pulmonale is caused mainly by respiratory failure and subsequent impaired function of some organs, in particular the kidney.