Cardiac troponin and skeletal muscle oxygenation in severe post-partum haemorrhage.

Introduction: Cardiac troponin has been shown to be elevated in one-half of the parturients admitted for post-partum haemorrhage. The purpose of the study was to assess whether increased cardiac troponin was associated with a simultaneous alteration in haemoglobin tissue oxygen saturation in peripheral muscles in post-partum haemorrhage.

Methods: Tissue haemoglobin oxygen saturation of thenar eminence muscle (StO2) was measured via near-infrared spectroscopy technology.

New pharmacologic therapies for acute heart failure.

Given the limitations of high-dose diuretics and vasodilators and the increasing literature showing that inotropes, regardless of the dose used, have a detrimental effect on mortality, a variety of new agents are under investigation for the treatment of pulmonary and systemic congestion and restoration of cardiac output in the setting of acute heart failure syndromes. The new therapeutic approach is based on two goals: short-term improvement in symptoms together with long-term improvement of cardiac function. This review describes new agents that are in preclinical and in clinical phases with realistic prospects: anti-endothelin, natriuretic peptides, istaroxime, levosimendan, myosin activators, and vasopressin antagonists.