Markus Meyer, PhD and his team built upon recent clinical studies that have shown improvements in HFpEF patients who took milrinone and levosimendan. These two medications are sometimes used to strengthen cardiac contraction in patients with heart failure and a reduced pump function. 

In their study, Meyer and team found that:

  • These benefits were associated with lower-filling pressures inside the heart chambers; 

  • All interventions activate calcium cycling, which controls cardiac contraction and relaxation; and

  • Calcium cycling leads to a baseline heart muscle tone, which prevents the overfilling of the heart and exposure to high levels of stiffness that result in heart failure symptoms. 

Read more
Meyer's article in Circulation