Paroxetine Alters Cardiac Stress Markers in Rats with Aortic Regurgitation

Background: Aortic regurgitation (AR) is a valvulopathy that causes volume overload to the heart leading to left ventricle dilation and eccentric hypertrophy. A common co-morbidity associated with cardiovascular disease is depression. We have previously shown that paroxetine, a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor widely prescribed as antidepressant, improves cardiac contractility by preserving fractional shortening (FS) of AR rat hearts. In...