THE EFFECT OF SERPASIL IN PULMONARY HYPERTENSION

Abstract

A considerable amount of information has been accumulated concerning the effect of various hypotensive agents on the pulmonary circulation. A detailed account on these observations was given recently by one of us (Halmagyi, 1957). Most of these studies were carried out in patients suffering from mitral stenosis. It was concluded that the increase of pulmonary vascular resistance in this disease is due both to organic changes and to vasoconstriction, the latter being mediated by the nervous system (Halmagyi et al., 1953). No uniform action was, however, obtained by drugs acting on different parts of the nervous system: even similar-acting drugs had a different effect on the pulmonary circulation. Tetra-ethylammonium (Halmagyi et al., 1953; Scott et al., 1955), dibenamine, sodium nitrite, and sleep (Halmagyi et al., 1953) resulted in a decrease in pulmonary arterial pressure and resistance. On the other hand, hexamethonium failed to influence pulmonary vascular resistance in carefully controlled observations carried out in patients suffering from mitral stenosis