The American journal of cardiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Effect of metoprolol on indirect signs of the size and severity of acute myocardial infarction.
In a double-blind randomized trial, 1,395 patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction (MI) were investigated to evaluate the possibility of limiting indirect signs of the size and severity of acute MI with the beta 1-selective adrenoceptor antagonist metoprolol. Metoprolol (15 mg) was given intravenously and followed by oral administration for 3 months (200 mg daily). Placebo was given in the same way. ⋯ Patients treated with metoprolol less than or equal to 12 hours also showed a decreased need for furosemide, a shortened hospital stay, and a significantly reduced 1-year mortality compared with the placebo group, whereas no difference was observed among patients treated later on. After 3 months, however, there was a similar reduction in mortality among patients in whom therapy was started less than or equal to 12 hours and greater than 12 hours after the onset of pain. The results support the hypothesis that intravenous metoprolol followed by oral treatment early in the course of suspected myocardial infarction can limit infarct size and improve long-term prognosis.
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Exercise-induced increases in radionuclide-determined pulmonary blood volume (PBV) and thallium lung uptake have been described in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and have been shown to correlate with transient exercise-induced left ventricular dysfunction. To compare these 2 techniques in the same patients, 74 patients (59 with and 15 without significant CAD) underwent supine bicycle exercise twice on the same day--first for thallium myocardial and lung imaging and then for technetium-99m gated blood pool imaging for the PBV ratio determination. Thallium activity of lung and myocardium was determined to calculate thallium lung/heart ratio. Relative changes in PBV from rest to exercise were expressed as a ratio of pulmonary counts (exercise/rest). Previously reported normal ranges for thallium lung/heart ratio and PBV ratio were used. The PBV ratio and thallium lung/heart ratio were abnormal in 71 and 36%, respectively, of patients with CAD (p less than 0.01). Both ratios were normal in all patients without CAD. Although the resting ejection fractions did not differ significantly in patients with normal versus those with abnormal PBV ratios or thallium lung/heart ratios, abnormal PBV ratios and thallium lung/heart ratios were associated with an exercise-induced decrease in ejection fraction. Propranolol use was significantly higher in patients with abnormal than in those with normal thallium lung/heart ratios (p less than 0.01). No significant difference in propranolol use was present in patients with abnormal or normal PBV ratios. ⋯ (1) the prevalence of an abnormal thallium lung/heart ratio is less than that of the PBV ratio in patients with CAD; (2) both tests are normal in normal control subjects; (3) propranolol does not cause abnormal results in normal control subjects; however, propranolol may influence lung thallium uptake in patients with CAD; and (4) when both tests are abnormal, there is a high likelihood of multivessel disease.
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Intravenous flecainide acetate was administered to 33 patients undergoing routine electrophysiologic study: 18 patients had a direct accessory atrioventricular (AV) pathway and 15 patients had functional longitudinal A-H dissociation (dual A-H pathways). Flecainide was given to 14 patients during sustained AV reentrant tachycardia and to 9 patients during sustained intra-AV nodal reentrant tachycardia. AV reentrant tachycardia was successfully terminated in 12 of 14 patients. ⋯ No serious adverse effects were encountered during the study. Flecainide acetate is an effective agent for the acute termination of both orthodromic AV and intra-AV nodal reentrant tachycardias. This antiarrhythmic action appears to be mediated through a predominant effect on either accessory AV pathway or retrograde fast A-H pathway refractoriness.
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Comparative Study
Comparative effects of nifedipine, verapamil, and diltiazem on experimental pulmonary hypertension.
The role of calcium-channel blocking agents in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension is not well defined. Consequently, the effects of diltiazem, nifedipine, and verapamil were compared in 3 groups of anesthetized dogs (n = 6 for each group). In each group, normoxic hemodynamic variables were recorded before and after increasing doses of diltiazem, nifedipine, and verapamil (5 X 10(-8) M/kg, low; 10(-7) M/kg, medium; and 10(-6) M/kg, high dose; given intravenously over 2 minutes). ⋯ This was accompanied by a 157% increase in cardiac output and only a small increase in pulmonary arterial pressure (7 mm Hg). Again, diltiazem produced no change in pulmonary hemodynamic variables. In these acute studies, nifedipine appeared to be a more effective pulmonary vasodilator than verapamil or diltiazem.