A drug used to treat erectile dysfunction and pulmonary hypertension, has another possible use—helping children and young adults with congenital heart disease to better tolerate exercise, scientists have found.
Researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia show the drug, called Sildenafil, significantly improved measures of exercise performance during stress testing in patients with single-ventricle heart disease,
All patients involved in the study had earlier undergone the Fontan operation, a procedure that redirects systemic venous blood directly to the pulmonary arteries, bypassing the heart.
It is the third operation in a staged series of surgeries for single-ventricle heart defects, life-threatening conditions in which a child is born with severe underdevelopment of one of the pumping chambers of the heart.
source: TOI
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