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Topic Overview

Nitrates are medicines that act as vasodilators because they mimic the effect of one of the body's own natural chemicals called nitric oxide, which causes arteries and veins to widen (dilate).

Nitrates can improve heart failure symptoms by:

• Dilating the coronary arteries. These are the arteries that carry blood to the heart itself. If your heart failure is caused by coronary artery disease, increasing the width of these arteries may help deliver more blood to your heart and may help it pump more efficiently.
• Dilating the veins. The large veins of the body, particularly in the legs, have the ability to hold a lot of blood. By dilating these veins, nitrates reduce the amount of blood returning to the heart, thereby reducing the buildup of fluid in your lungs.
• Dilating the systemic arteries. Systemic arteries are blood vessels that carry blood to the rest of the body (excluding the heart and lungs). The blood pressure in these arteries determines how hard your heart needs to pump. By dilating these arteries, nitrates may relieve some of the work your heart needs to do.
• Dilating the pulmonary arteries. Dilating the arteries of the lungs (pulmonary arteries) also reduces the amount of work your heart needs to do. This effect is particularly helpful for the right side of your heart, which is often weakened along with the left side of the heart in some forms of heart failure.

How well do nitrates work?

For heart failure, hydralazine is typically used along with a nitrate. But nitrates may be used alone, without hydralazine, if you are taking it to relieve angina symptoms.

If you take hydralazine with a nitrate, you will also take other medicines for heart failure such as ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers. This combination of medicines may help relieve symptoms and lower the risk of early death. This benefit has been shown in African Americans but has not been shown in other groups of people.¹

Vasodilators are often combined with other medicines to treat heart failure. Hydralazine taken with a nitrate may be used as an alternative to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors if ACE inhibitors cannot be tolerated.

Related Information

• Heart Failure

References

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