Zeitschrift für Kardiologie
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The relationships between ventricular function, coronary blood flow, and myocardial oxygen consumption after sublingual administration of 1.6 mg nitroglycerin (TNG) were investigated in 12 patients. Left ventricular volumes, determined from cineventriculograms (enddiastolic volume index and endsystolic volume index), decreased (p less than 0.005) after TNG, as did left ventricular peak pressure (p less than 0.01), left ventricular enddiastolic pressure (p less than 0.005), mean aortic pressure (p less than 0.005), and mean pulmonary artery pressure (p less than 0.001). Due to the decrease in enddiastolic volume and the insignificant change in stroke volume, ejection fraction increased (p less than 0.05). ⋯ Similarly the change in myocardial oxygen consumption, calculated according to Bretschneider, decreased insignificantly by an average of approx. 10%. The correlation of changes in coronary blood flow and myocardial oxygen consumption was evaluated statistically by the use of the 2 X 2 contingency table in conjunction with the chi 2 McNamar test: patients with a decrease in myocardial oxygen consumption also showed a decrease in coronary blood flow (p less than 0.05). This implies that coronary blood flow is determined by myocardial oxygen consumption, which is altered by the systemic effects of TNG.
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1. The long-term follow-up of 22 patients with anorectic drug intake (aminorex fumarate) (AS) and PVPH is compared to 38 patients with PVPH of unknown etiology. 2. The 10-year cumulative survival rate is significantly higher for the AF-positive group (54 +/- 11%) than for the AF-negative patients (15 +/- 6%). 3. ⋯ Hemodynamic serial controls in the AF-positive group often show a decrease in pulmonary pressure at rest, in contrast to the AF-negative group. However, in all but one of the patients with a pressure drop at rest there is a considerable increase in pulmonary pressure during exercise. 5. In neither group any correlation is to be found between pulmonary pressure and survival time.
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A newly developed real-time sound spectroanalyzer was found to be capable of diagnosing malfunction of prosthetic heart valves (Björk-Shiley prostheses). Sound spectroanalysis was carried out 430 times on 257 patients with a prosthetic heart valve. ⋯ Thus the sound spectroanalysis appears to be a noninvasive technique which may allow early diagnosis of a thrombosed prosthetic heart valve. We believe this method to be superior to phonocardiography and echocardiography.
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Preliminary results concerning the occlusion of experimental atrial-septal defects (ASDII) of the secundum type are reported. An occlusion element was inserted transvenously and its passage across the atrial-septal defect was controlled by open-heart surgery in dogs. Subsequently, the defect was occluded using a single-piece element. ⋯ The atrial-septal defects could be closed for a short time in 2 dogs. In 1 of the 2 dogs the element embolized into the right pulmonary artery, and in the other into the abdominal aorta. Transvenous occlusion of experimental atrial-septal defects is possible, but more experimental work is necessary with respect to the technical problems.