Preliminary clinical experience with the repetitive administration of levosimendan in patients with end-stage heart failure.

We present our preliminary clinical experience with the initial and repetitive administration of the novel inotropic agent levosimendan in a cohort of 20 patients with end-stage heart failure who were acutely decompensated or whose symptoms were refractory to the usual pharmacological treatments thus necessitating hospitalization. Repetitive levosimendan infusions were administered to 9 patients (minimum 2, maximum 8 pulses). The effects of this therapy on the symptomatic status, vital signs, hemodynamic performance and clinical outcomes are discussed.

Outcome of percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty: comparison of the inoue and retrograde non-transseptal techniques. A single-center experience.

Introduction: The transseptal Inoue (IN) and to a lesser extend retrograde non-transseptal (RNT) techniques are established procedures for percutaneous mitral balloon valvuloplasty (PBMV) in patients with mitral stenosis. However, a head to head comparison of these two techniques, especially from a single center, has not yet been reported.

Methods: Seventy-two consecutive patients (n = 35 IN and n = 37 RNT) underwent PMBV in our clinic from October 1993 to December 1999.