A pragmatic approach to the use of inotropes for the management of acute and advanced heart failure: An expert panel consensus.

Abstract	Inotropes aim at increasing cardiac output by enhancing cardiac contractility. They constitute the third pharmacological pillar in the treatment of patients with decompensated heart failure, the other two being diuretics and vasodilators. Three classes of parenterally administered inotropes are currently indicated for decompensated heart failure, (i) the beta adrenergic agonists, including dopamine and dobutamine and also the catecholamines epinephrine and norepinephrine, (ii) the phosphodiesterase III inhibitor milrinone and (iii) the calcium sensitizer levosimendan. These three families of drugs share some pharmacologic traits, but differ profoundly in many of their pleiotropic effects. Identifying the patients in need of inotropic support and selecting the proper inotrope in each case remain challenging. The present consensus, derived by a panel meeting of experts from 21 countries, aims at addressing this very issue in the setting of both acute and advanced heart failure.
Authors	Dimitrios Farmakis, Piergiuseppe Agostoni, Loant Baholli, Andrei Bautin, Josep Comin-Colet, Maria G Crespo-Leiro, Francesco Fedele, Jose Manuel García-Pinilla, George Giannakoulas, Francesco Grigioni, Marcin Gruchała, Finn Gustafsson, Veli-Pekka Harjola, Tal Hasin, Antoine Herpain, Efstathios K Iliodromitis, Kristjan Karason, Matti Kivikko, Lucas Liaudet, Jana Ljubas-Maček, Marco Marini, Josep Masip, Alexandre Mebazaa, Maria Nikolaou, Petr Ostadal, Pentti Põder, Piero Pollesello, Eftihia Polyzogopoulou, Gerhard Pölzl, Carsten Tschope, Marjut Varpula, Dirk von Lewinski, Bojan Vrtovec, Mehmet Birhan Yilmaz, Endre Zima, John Parissis
Journal	International journal of cardiology (Int J Cardiol) Vol. 297 Pg. 83-90 (12 15 2019) ISSN: 1874-1754 [Electronic] Netherlands
PMID	31615650 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
Copyright	Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Chemical References	Adrenergic beta-Agonists Cardiotonic Agents
Topics	Adrenergic beta-Agonists (therapeutic use) Cardiotonic Agents (therapeutic use) Consensus Heart Failure (drug therapy) Humans Patient Selection Practice Patterns, Physicians'

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