Systemic and coronary effects of intravenous milrinone and dobutamine in congestive heart failure

The effects of dobutamine and intravenous milrinone on systemic hemodynamics, coronary blood flow and myocardial metabolism were studied in 11 patients with severe congestive heart failure. Although milrinone and dobutamine similarly increased cardiac index from 1.9 ± 0.4 to 2.5 ± 0.4 liters/min per m 2 (p 2 (p 2 /min (p Thus, dobutamine and milrinone produce similar improvement in cardiac index. However, dobutamine increases myocardial oxygen consumption, whereas milrinone does not. This difference can probably be explained by the substantial vasodilating properties of milrinone.