The effects of nisoldipine on left ventricular filling rate in patients with ischemic heart disease measured with radionuclide gated blood pool scintigraphy.

Nisoldipine is a newly developed calcium channel blocker with outstanding vasodilatory properties especially with regard to the coronary arteries. Thus it may find wide-spread application as a therapeutic agent in various ischemic heart disease syndromes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of nisoldipine on the diastolic function of the left ventricle (LV) in the clinical situation. A patient group on nisoldipine treatment was compared to a control group. In the nisoldipine group a maximum decrease of 17 mmHg in the mean systolic blood pressure with an increase in the mean peak ejection rate (0.78 EDV/s) and peak filling rate (0.52 EDV/s) were observed. Mean LV ejection fraction increased by 6.4% and the time to peak filling rate decreased by 36.5 ms. After eight weeks of treatment the acute effects of nisoldipine were similar to the previous study. Nisoldipine therefore tends to improve both the diastolic and systolic function of the left ventricle.