Juergen Konczalla, Jan Mrosek, Stefan Wanderer, Patrick Schuss, Erdem Guresir, Volker Seifert, Hartmut Vatter, Johannes Platz
Levosimendan is a novel calcium sensitizer that is an established treatment for congestive heart failure. In coronary vessels, levosimendan has a vasorelaxant, endothelium-independent effect and an antagonistic effect on endothelin-1 (ET-1). There is also some data for a neuroprotective effect in a traumatic brain injury model, and levosimendan can prevent the reduction of the luminal area of the basilar artery. We considered that patients who suffer heart attack after subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) might respond well to levosimendan, which might also be useful to induce hypertension in patients with cerebral vasospasm...
May 2013: Current Neurovascular Research