Dobutamine: A New Synthetic Cardioactive Sympathetic Amine

Dobutamine* is a new, synthetic, intravenously administered catecholamine that acts directly to increase myocardial contractility without inducing marked tachycardia or greatly changing peripheral arterial resistance.1 These features make it useful for treating acute cardiac failure characterized by low cardiac output and elevated diastolic filling pressures, and in July, 1978, it was approved for clinical use in this country.Norepinephrine is the endogenous catecholamine that is synthesized and stored in granules in adrenergic nerve endings in the myocardium. When sympathetic nerves to the heart are activated, norepinephrine is released from its stores and stimulates specific sites on the myocardial cell surface, . . .