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Impact of sublingual sildenafil on pulmonary hypertension in patients with heart failure

A. D. de Freitas, F. Bacal, J. de Lima Oliveira, R. H. Santos, L. F. Moreira, C. P. Silva, S. Mangini, R. M. Carneiro et al.

Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia, 2009

20 citations

Abstract

BACKGROUND

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is a factor of poor prognosis in the postoperative period of heart transplant (HT) and thus, the study of the degree of reversibility to vasodilators is mandatory during the preoperative assessment.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the pulmonary and systemic hemodynamic effects of sildenafil as a vasodilator during the PH reversibility test in patients that are candidates to HT.

METHODS

Patients awaiting HT were submitted to the measurement of systemic and pulmonary hemodynamic variables before and after the administration of a single sublingual dose of 100 mg of sildenafil during right heart catheterization.

RESULTS

Fourteen patients (age: 47+/-12 years, 71.4% men) with advanced heart failure Ejection Fraction (EF) 25 +/- 7%, Functional Class (FC - NYHA) FC III - 6 and FC IV - 8, were evaluated in this study. The acute administration of sildenafil showed to be effective in decreasing the systolic (62.4 +/- 12.1 vs 51.5 +/- 9.6 mmHg, CI=95%, p<0.05) and mean (40.7 +/- 7.3 vs 33.8 +/- 7.6 mmHg, CI=95%, p <0.05) pressures of the pulmonary artery. There was also a significant decrease in the pulmonary (4.2 +/- 3 vs 2.0 +/- 0.9 uWood, CI=95%, p<0.05) and systemic vascular resistance (22.9 +/- 6.8 vs 18.6 +/- 4.1 Wood, CI=95%, p<0.05), associated to an increase in the cardiac output (3.28 +/- 0.79 vs 4.12 +/-1.12 uWood, CI=95%, p<0.05) without, however, significantly interfering in the systemic arterial pressure (87.8 +/- 8.2 vs 83.6 +/- 9.1 mmHg,…

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