Acute haemodynamic effects of a specific bradycardic agent in patients with coronary heart disease and impaired left ventricular function.

Alinidine is a bradycardic agent, which appears to be of potential value in the therapy of coronary heart disease. It might be useful in patients with impaired left ventricular function, where use of other bradycardic agents such as beta-blockers is limited due to their negative inotropy. To assess if alinidine has the potential to worsen haemodynamics in patients with strongly reduced left ventricular function we have examined acute haemodynamic changes after alinidine (0.5 mg kg-1 i.v.) both in a group of patients with mildly and in a group with strongly reduced left ventricular function. A significant reduction of resting heart rate and cardiac index was observed in both groups. All other haemodynamic parameters, especially left ventricular filling pressures (LVEDP, PC) and enddiastolic volume index did not show any significant change; dp/dtmax was not significantly influenced by alkinidine, when the influence of heart rate lowering was eliminated by pacing. We conclude that administration of alinidine in the dosage used does not lead to a significant deterioration even in patients with strongly impaired left ventricular function.