[Use of dopamine in the treatment of cardiogenic shock. Preliminary results].

A study of seven patients, each of whom was treated with dopamine within three hours after suffering a myocardial infarction. For four of these, a comparative study was made with isoproterenol, glucagon and ouabaine. The average age of the subjects was 72 years, and all presented considerable myocardial lesions before the treatment was begun. Despite improvement, particularly in diuresis and cardiac output, none of the patients survived. The authors explain these results by the fact that, like all powerful inotropic agents, dopamine produces an increase in oxygen consumption of the myocardium for the ischemic cells situated in the zone contiguous to the infarct.