• Stamatis Adamopoulos, Dionyssios Leftheriotis, Eftihia Sbarouni, George Karavolias, and Dimitrios Th Kremastinos.
• Second Department of Cardiology, Onassis Cardiac Surgery Centre, 356 Syngrou Avenue, 176 74 Athens, Greece.
• Eur. J. Heart Fail. 2002 Dec 1;4(6):719-26.

BackgroundAlthough there are many studies concerning the effects of long-term oestrogen administration on systemic haemodynamics in postmenopausal women, the effects of oestrogen in patients with chronic heart failure are not defined.AimThe goal of this study was to evaluate the acute haemodynamic effects of oestrogen in male patients with chronic heart failure.Methods And ResultsWe studied 15 men with advanced heart failure (NYHA II-IV, EF < 35%). A Swan-Ganz thermodilution catheter was advanced in their pulmonary artery and central haemodynamics were assessed at baseline, after placebo administration, and following 0.625 and 1.25 mg of oestrogen infusion. Simultaneously, all patients underwent limb plethysmography. Analysis of variance with repeated measures was used to compare the sequential measurements. Following oestrogen administration, right atrial, pulmonary artery and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures, as well as systemic, pulmonary and forearm vascular resistance were decreased; cardiac output, cardiac index, stroke volume, stroke volume index, stroke work index and forearm blood flow were increased.ConclusionsIn male patients with chronic heart failure, acute oestrogen administration improves the indices of cardiac systolic performance and decreases pulmonary and systemic vascular resistance. These findings imply a beneficial effect of oestrogen in selected patients with chronic heart failure.Copyright 2002 European Society of Cardiology

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