Abstract
Ventricular hypertrophy alters transporters associated with digitalis action, but the outcome of digitalis treatment on intracellular cations in the hypertrophied human myocardium remains unknown. Using double-barreled Ca 2+-selective microelectrodes, we simultaneously measured Ca 2+ activity and membrane potential in myocardial samples from patients without and with ventricular hypertrophy, prior to and following exposure to strophanthidin, a prototype digitalis. We found that ventricular hypertrophy is associated with greater strophanthidin-induced increase in diastolic Ca 2+ levels compared to that observed in the absence of hypertrophy. Furthermore, in hypertrophied myocardium the magnitude of the increase in Ca 2+ induced by strophanthidin was inversely related to increase in myocardial mass. Thus, the extent of ventricular hypertrophy determines digitalis action on intracellular Ca 2+ within the human myocardium.
Published Version
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