Digitalis Found Ineffective In Some Heart Failure Cases

The popular drug digitalis may be ineffective for as many as half the heart failure patients who take it, indicates a study released Wednesday by a cardiology research team from Massachusetts General Hospital. Harvard's primary teaching hospital.

The study's conclusion is the first to question the merits of the widely-used drug--an extract from the foxglove plant--which has been used against heart disease since the late 18th century Digitalis is now prescribed to over one million patients in the synthetic form dixogen.

Published in the March 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, the study found that 14 of 25 non-hospitalized heart failure patients improved when given dixogen and worsened when given a placebo. The other 14 patients showed no response to the dixogen therapy.

The director of the study said yesterday that the small size of the research sample was not important and that results can be generalized. He added that a second study was currently underway to verify the results.

Dr. Robert A. Johnson peculated that previous digitalis studies had indicated a much higher effectiveness for the drug because they had not completely controlled experimental conditions.

There are many different kinds of heart disease and digitalis has already been proven effective for some. Johnson said the Mass General study focused on those cases where digitalis effectiveness had not been demonstrated.

According to the journal report, all 14 patients who benefited from dixogen had a symptom called a third heart sound, an abnormal noise that occurs when the heart strikes the chest wall. The third heart sound, which Johnson says determines who should receive digitalis therapy, is an extra "dub" heard after the normal "lub-dub" sound that the heart makes when heard through a stethoscope.