Why the study?
Do agents elevating intracellular Na+ restore the force-frequency relationship in terminally failing human myocardium?
Do agents elevating intracellular Na+ restore the force-frequency relationship in terminally failing human myocardium?
Increasing intracellular Na+ may provide a beneficial inotropic mechanism in failing human hearts independent of detrimental increases in intracellular Ca2+.
It is concluded that functionally important changes occur in the intracellular Ca2+ handling, leading to the negative force-frequency relationship in terminally failing human myocardium. Interestingly, the negative force-frequency relationship can be restored by agents producing positive inotropic effects by elevation of the intracellular Na+ concentration. These findings suggest that hitherto unknown changes in the intracellular ionic homeostasis occur in the failing human heart. Even though increasing [Ca2+]i in failing heart cells may be detrimental, increasing [Na+bdi may be beneficial through a mechanism independent of an increase in [Ca2+]i.
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Schwinger et al. (1993) studied this question.
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