Article date: March 1988
By: A Bush, CM Busst, A Millar, N Syrett, in Volume 25, Issue 3, pages 341-348
1. Epoprostenol (prostacyclin) has been widely used as a vasodilator, but its effects on cardiac output are controversial and the time course of its effects little studied. 2. We report its cardiovascular effects in doses of 5 and 10 ng kg‐1 min‐1 in six healthy volunteers. 3. Each of the two doses caused a mean 20% rise in effective pulmonary blood flow and a 15% rise in heart rate. These effects appeared to reach a maximum within 10 min of starting or increasing the rate of infusion, with no evidence of a rebound effect. 4. When the dose was reduced, heart rate and effective pulmonary blood flow appeared to reach a new steady state within 5 min of reducing or stopping the infusion. Only minor side‐effects were encountered, and they were rapidly reversed on stopping the drug. 5. These results should be applied to the therapeutic use of epoprostenol as a vasodilator, particularly when titrating the optimum dose for a given individual.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.1988.tb03312.x
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