Uremic cardiomyopathy: role of circulating digitalis like substances.

Patients with chronic renal failure develop a cardiomyopathy characterized by marked diastolic dysfunction and left ventricular hypertrophy. Interestingly, they also have substantial increases in the circulating concentrations of digitalis like substances. Digitalis like substances produce reactive oxygen species as part of the signal cascade induced by binding to the sodium pump and patients, and this signal cascade appears to induce hypertrophy of cardiac myocytes grown in culture. Also, patients with chronic renal failure develop an oxidant stress state without a known mechanism. From these data, we propose that it is these digitalis like substances which cause cardiomyopathy of renal failure as well as the systemic oxidant stress state.