Decreased lymphocyte beta-adrenergic-receptor density in patients with heart failure and tolerance to the beta-adrenergic agonist pirbuterol.

We compared the initial and long-term effects of the beta-adrenergic agonist pirbuterol in 12 patients with chronic congestive heart failure. The drug's initial effect was a 35 per cent increase in cardiac index, but there was no significant change in heart rate or mean arterial pressure. After one month of therapy, the mean cardiac index and ejection fraction had returned to base-line values, and no clinical effect was evident in most patients. This apparent tolerance was not accompanied by changes in heart rate, blood pressure, or body weight, and it occurred in the presence of therapeutic drug levels during long-term therapy. The density of beta-adrenergic receptors on lymphocytes from patients treated with pirbuterol was significantly depressed as compared with that of patients with heart failure of comparable severity but not treated with pirbuterol. We conclude that tolerance to the hemodynamic and clinical effects of pirbuterol develops during long-term administration; this tolerance may be related to a decrease in myocardial or vascular beta-adrenergic receptors or both.