[Evaluation of nifedipine and captopril as adjuvant drugs in the standard treatment of chronic heart failure].

A group of 25 patients in III-IV haemodynamic period of chronic stagnant circulatory failure (pzns) in clinical conditions for two weeks were administered digoxin and furosemide (DF), then for the following two weeks DF therapy was combined with nifedipine (N), in the following 4 weeks the DFN therapy was combined with captopril (DFNK), in the last two weeks DFN therapy was applied again. The authors used the following doses per 24 h: D--0.29 +/- 0.96 mg, F--13.5 +/- 4.8 mg, N--40.8 +/- 12.8 mg and K 75.0 +/- 28.8 mg. Each cycle of the therapy was followed by a precise clinical evaluation, analysis of the function of the left ventricle by means of two-dimensional echocardiography, the evaluation of the tolerance of physical effort and the evaluation of chest radiograms. Besides, blood was studied for the concentrations of potassium, sodium, chloride, urea, creatinine, uric acid, haematocrit value and pH value. The addition of nifedipine to the classical therapy did not give significant improvement in the clinical condition, haemodynamic parameters and the tolerance of physical effort in patients with pzns. In comparison to DF period, the use of captopryl brought about a statistically significant increase (p less than 0.05) in ejection fraction (EF) from 43.0 +/- 15.3% up to 45.2 +/- 11.7%, in effort power from 36.5 +/- 16.4W up to 47.1 +/- 17.5W, in effort duration from 3.5 +/- 1.6 min. up to 4.5 +/- 1.8 min. and a significant decrease (p less than 0.05) in body weight from 68.1 +/- 13.8 down to 66.9 +/- 13.0 kg and heart volume from 1175.5 +/- 487.3 cm3 down do 1074.6 +/- 380.9 cm3. One could notice, though statistically not significantly (p greater than 0.05) an increase in stroke volume index and cardiae index. Besides, the authors noticed a tendency to an increase in potassium concentration in blood serum. Eliminating captopryl caused fast regression of positive haemodynamic effects, decrease in physical effort tolerance, and clinical condition resumed the condition observed in the period of DFN therapy.