Diltiazem improves cardiac function and exercise capacity in patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Results of the Diltiazem in Dilated Cardiomyopathy Trial.

Background: Evidence is arising that calcium antagonists in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) may have beneficial effects on virus-induced cardiopathology, alcohol toxicity, micro-circulatory disorders, and impaired calcium cycling, all possibly involved in the pathogenesis of the disease. Thus, the effect of adjunct diltiazem (60 to 90 mg TID) on standard treatment was investigated.

Methods And Results: The Diltiazem in Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DiDi) trial was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter trial of 186 patients (92 receiving diltiazem, 94 receiving placebo) with IDC diagnosed by coronary angiography, catheterization of the left side of the heart, and a left ventricular ejection fraction of < 0.

Beneficial effects of long-term diltiazem treatment in dilated cardiomyopathy.

There is increasing evidence that chronic enhanced exogenous or endogenous catecholamine stimulation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy may worsen hemodynamic status and prognosis. The cause of this deterioration may lie in myocellular calcium accumulation and microcirculatory disorders. In a prospective study, the calcium channel antagonist diltiazem was given to 22 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (60 to 90 mg three times daily) in addition to conventional therapy of digitalis, diuretics and vasodilators.

[Beneficial long-term effects of diltiazem on the course of dilated cardiomyopathy].

There is increasing evidence that chronic enhanced exogenic or endogenic catecholamine stimulation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy may worsen hemodynamics and prognosis. The cause of this may lie in myocellular calcium accumulation and microcirculatory disorders. In a prospective study the calcium antagonist diltiazem was given to 22 patients with dilated cardiomyopathy (60-90 mg t.

[Rhabdomyolysis as a complication of chronic alcoholism. Observations in 19 cases].

In 19 chronic alcoholics with rhabdomyolysis the clinical picture demonstrated markedly different degrees of severity of myolysis. Muscle pain, muscle swellings and brown-coloured urine were rare. But symptoms of delirium, at times with cerebral seizures, were frequent at the onset.