Levosimendan Enhances Cardiac Performance After Cardiopulmonary Bypass: A Prospective, Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial

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Abstract
Levosimendan is a new myofilament calcium (Ca2+) sensitizer that increases myocardial contractility by stabilizing the Ca2+-bound conformation of troponin C. We tested the hypothesis that levosimendan enhances cardiac performance after cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Anesthesia was induced and maintained with midazolam, sufentanil, and vecuronium in 18 patients randomly assigned to received levosimendan (18 or 36 μg/kg loading dose and 0.2 or 0.3 μg/kg/min infusion, respectively) or placebo 15 min before and continued for 6 h after CPB. Significant (p 5