Contractility studies, hawthorn

It is a diuretic. An extract of the flowers and leaves improves cardiac output and the contractility of the heart muscle. Flavonoids in hawthorn have been shown to increase blood flow in the heart by dilating blood vessels in coronary arteries. Hawthorn has lowered cholesterol in animal studies, probably due to its oligomeric procyanidins (OPC), a type of bioflavonoid similar to that found in the extracts of grape seed and grape skin. 

Hawthorn extracts purportedly dilate coronary blood vessels, decrease blood pressure, increase myocardial contractility, and lower serum cholesterol (9). Benefits have been demonstrated in patients with heart failure (10). In patients with stage II New York Heart Association (NYHA) heart failure, doses of 160-900 mg/day of the aqueous-alcoholic extract for up to 56 days showed an increase in exercise tolerance, decrease in rate/pressure product, and increased ejection fraction (11). Degenring and colleagues, in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, studied a standardized extract of fresh Crataegus berries (Crataegisan ) for the treatment of patients with... 

This study suggests that, at the most, hawthorn might cause a minor decrease in digoxin levels, and no adjustment of the digoxin dose is therefore likely to be needed on concurrent use. Although no pharmacodynamic effects were seen, the possibility that hawthorn s cardioactive constituents might increase the effect of digoxin on cardiac contractility cannot be ruled out. ... 

The main effect of hawthorn is on the cardiovascular system. Pharmacological studies report enhanced coronary blood flow and myocardial perfusion improvement of cardiac muscle contractility increased left ventrical output velocity lowering of blood pressure " an antiarrhythmic effect increased myocardium tolerance to oxygen deprivation under hypoxic conditions cardioprotective effect against myocardial infarc-tion and stimulation of revascularization after myocardial ischemia (escop 1) Various clinical studies reveal efficacy in congestive heart failure increased cardiac performance decrease in peripheral vascular... 

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