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A Third Stage of Digitalis Therapy

EMBREE H. BLACKARD, M.D.; TINSLEY R. HARRISON, M.D.

AMA Arch Intern Med. 1959;103(4):543-550.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

William Withering, in 1785, stated, in referring to digitalis: "Let the medicine therefore be given in the dose and at the intervals mentioned above:—let it be continued until it either acts on the kidneys, the stomach, the pulse, or the bowels; let it be stopped upon the first appearance of any of these effects."¹ Since that time, however, it has become common medical practice to digitalize a patient initially and then to assume that a full effect will persist with an average maintenance dose. The purpose of this report is to call attention to a third stage of digitalization, following those of initial digitalization and maintenance: that of periodic augmentation.

Subject and Methods

Thirty-three patients were studied. Eighteen of them had been digitalized by other physicians in the conventional manner and maintained on an average maintenance dose without interruption for periods varying from 1 month to 15 years. Eleven . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Birmingham, Ala.

From the Department of Medicine, Medical College of Alabama.

Footnotes
Submitted for publication July 31, 1958.

Aided by grants from the U. S. Public Health Service, The Ingco Foundation, and The Claude E. Dorsey Jr. Memorial Fund.

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