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Atrial electrocardiotopography is shown to be a fairly informative non-invasive method for both the detection of heart failure and the assessment of its severity. Its findings were verified by conventional invasive and non-invasive procedures. Moderate left-ventricular heart failure was only associated with increased total left-atrial electrical activity, while marked heart failure also involved an expanded negative P wave projection zone and a greater total magnitude of right-atrial potentials.

A combination of non-invasive and invasive procedures was used to assess hemodynamic response to negative pressure applied to the lower parts of the body (NPLB) in 56 patients with acute myocardial infarction and varying degrees of heart failure (HF) and 20 normal subjects. Normal subjects and HF-free patients showed a significant decrease in their stroke and cardiac indices and pulse pressure, and a rise in specific peripheral resistance, while the HF patients demonstrated higher cardiac productivity and lower specific peripheral resistance. Within 3 minutes after the discontinuation of NPLB, part of the depot blood returned to the central channel, creating a volumetric load on the heart. In this situation, the pump function of the heart was activated in normal subjects and HF-free patients, while patients with latent HF showed no such response, and those with obvious HF demonstrated impaired pump function.

Central hemodynamic effects of 0.05 mg/kg molsidomine were examined in 60 patients with decompensated mitral disease dwelling at low and medium altitudes. M-echocardiography was used to assess hemodynamic shifts. The assessments were made during the diagnostic probing of a pulmonary artery in 23 cases. Hemodynamic efficacy of molsidomine was more pronounced up in the mountains. Rationale are given for expanding indications for peripheral vasodilators (molsidomine) in highlanders with congestive heart failure.