Circumferential aortic dissection in a young woman.
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Adult↗
Biomedical subjects
H Smulyan
Publications and source records attributed to H Smulyan.
The use of transesophageal echocardiography in detecting aortic atherosclerosis in patients with embolic disease.
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Aged↗
An analysis of symptoms in patients with permanent ventricular pacemakers.
The prevalence and severity of symptoms of the "pacemaker syndrome" were investigated in 64 patients with VVI pacemakers and compared, in the same patients, to a series of control symptoms, unrelated to pacemaker function. Symptoms were also compared in patient groups unlikely to have the "pacemaker syndrome" (atrial fibrillation), most likely to have such symptoms (retrograde atrial activation) and in an intermediate group (competitive paced and sinus rhythms). There was a linear relationship between the frequency and severity of "pacemaker" symptoms and control questions in all groups and no preponderance of "pacemaker" symptoms in any group. The study provides an estimate of the number and severity of symptoms in patients with VVI pacemakers, demonstrates the non-specificity of the "pacemaker syndrome" and shows no evidence of a sub-clinical "pacemaker syndrome" in the patients observed.
Aged↗
Captopril administered every three hours in difficult-to-control hypertension.
The renovascular hypertension of an elderly patient, which was controlled initially with standard-dose therapy with captopril, later responded only to 75 mg given every 3 h without side effects. Changeover to another class of antihypertensives, as is recommended in recalcitrant cases, was not needed. Convenient maintenance therapy with lisinopril (10 mg twice daily) has kept blood pressure under control for a year.
Aged↗
Atrial natriuretic peptide response to cardioversion of atrial flutter and fibrillation and role of associated heart failure.
Plasma atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) concentrations were measured before and 1 hour after cardioversion in 40 patients (27 with atrial flutter and 13 with atrial fibrillation) admitted for elective cardioversion. Fourteen (11 with atrial flutter and 3 with atrial fibrillation) had clinical evidence of congestive heart failure (CHF). Conversion to sinus rhythm was successful in 39 patients. The mean ANP concentration in the entire group decreased after cardioversion from 38 +/- 4 to 17 +/- 2 pmol/liter (p less than 0.001). In the subgroup with CHF, the ANP level, which was not significantly higher than that in the group without CHF, decreased from 47 +/- 8 to 19 +/- 3 pmol/liter (p less than 0.01). Neither mode of cardioversion (spontaneous 1, pharmacologic 2 and direct-current countershock 36) nor associated CHF influenced ANP response to cardioversion. One patient with atrial flutter and "failed cardioversion" had unchanged ANP level. The decrease after cardioversion in ANP concentration correlated with its control level (r = 0.88, p less than 0.001) but not with the decrease in heart rate. The ANP level in patients with atrial fibrillation was 45 +/- 9 vs 38 +/- 5 pmol/liter in those with atrial flutter (difference not significant). Arrhythmia duration, left atrial size, and ventricular rate or arterial blood pressure did not correlate with ANP concentration in any subgroup. It is concluded that (1) the ANP level is elevated comparably in patients with both atrial flutter and fibrillation regardless of the presence or absence of CHF; and (2) the level decreases, independent of the mode of cardioversion or presence of CHF, promptly after successful cardioversion.
Aged↗
Importance of intraarterial blood pressure measurement in the evaluation of a new antihypertensive agent and the need to define hypertension also by this method.
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Administration, Oral↗
Use of hepatic vein catheterization in the evaluation of patients with anasarca.
In patients with anasarca, the relative importance of cardiac, pulmonary and/or hepatic dysfunction is often difficult to determine. Conventional use of the Swan-Ganz catheter helps to separate the contributions of right and left heart disease, but it is seldom used to evaluate liver dysfunction. This report describes passage of a Swan-Ganz catheter into the hepatic vein prior to pulmonary artery placement in 11 patients. Hepatic vein catheterization permitted wedged hepatic venography using contrast media and measurement of the wedged and free hepatic venous pressures. All 11 patients had pulmonary hypertension; three had cor pulmonale only, and the others had combinations of left and right heart failure. In addition, six patients had either a cirrhotic pattern on venography, or portal hypertension. Only three of these six patients had previous clinical evidence of liver disease. This study does not prove that identification of hepatic dysfunction by this method improves the outcome in such patients. However, this low risk modification of standard pulmonary artery catheterization provides additional information which is clinically useful in searching for and avoiding complications of cirrhosis, as well as offering a clearer understanding of pathophysiology in acute multisystem disease.
Ascites↗
Factors encouraging research productivity in a division of general internal medicine.
The authors investigated two of the causes of and possible remedies for low research activity (as measured by rate of publication) of faculty members in a division of general internal medicine at a university hospital and its affiliated Veterans Administration medical center. They did this by analyzing information about the faculty in the health center's records spanning a 16-year period. This 1989 study suggests that the general medicine faculty members who are also involved in subspecialties and who have protected research time can improve their research productivity.
Academic Medical Centers↗
Nifedipine in chronic cor pulmonale: acute and relatively long-term effects.
After 20 mg sublingual nifedipine in 12 men with clinical stable chronic cor pulmonale the mean arterial pressure and systemic vascular resistance fell, cardiac index rose, and mean pulmonary arterial (Ppa) and wedge (Ppaw) pressures, right atrial pressure, and PaO2 remained unchanged. After 20 mg orally every 6 hours for 24 hours in 11 patients, the mean arterial pressure fell further, systemic vascular resistance remained low, and the cardiac index returned to baseline, whereas the Ppa and Ppaw decreased, but the pulmonary vascular driving pressure (Ppa-Ppaw), right atrial pressure, PaO2, and spirometry and ejection fractions remained unchanged. Of eight patients receiving maintenance therapy four developed untoward side effects in 1 to 3 weeks and one was noncompliant. The remaining three patients evaluated at 6 weeks failed to improve and had unchanged resting hemodynamics. Thus in the absence of a potentially reversible hypoxic pulmonary hypertension, nifedipine may not improve pulmonary arterial pressure and cardiac function in clinically stable patients with cor pulmonale.
Administration, Sublingual↗
Effects of thyroid function on blood pressure. Recognition of hypothyroid hypertension.
Hypothyroidism has been known to be associated, at times, with diastolic hypertension. We have found in 40 thyrotoxic patients that the induction of hypothyroidism by radioiodine therapy significantly increased diastolic blood pressure, raising it above 90 mm Hg in 16 (40%) of the patients. Restoration of euthyroidism with thyroxine administration significantly reduced the systolic and diastolic blood pressures in these patients, with a fall in diastolic pressure below 90 mm Hg in nine of 16 patients. The prevalence of hypothyroidism was determined by measurements of serum thyroxine and thyrotropin concentrations in 688 consecutive hypertensive patients, referred for evaluation and therapy of their hypertension. Hypothyroidism was found in 25 (3.6%) of the patients. Restoration of normal serum thyroxine and thyrotropin levels with thyroid hormone replacement therapy lowered diastolic blood pressure to levels below 90 mm Hg in 32% of these patients who could be followed up after withdrawal of all antihypertensive drug therapy when euthyroidism had been restored (i.e., 1.2% of the 688 patients). It is concluded that diastolic hypertension resulting from hypothyroidism is a relatively common disorder, present in 1.2% of our referred hypertensive patients, that should be sought and treated.
Adult↗
Effect of one year of thiazide therapy on plasma volume, renin, aldosterone, lipids and urinary metanephrines in systolic hypertension of elderly patients.
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Aged↗
Systemic systolic hypertension in the elderly: correlation of hemodynamics, plasma volume, renin, aldosterone, urinary metanephrines and response to thiazide therapy.
Twenty-four men, mean age 63 +/- 1.7 years, with systemic systolic hypertension were studied before and after 1 month of therapy with oral hydrochlorothiazide, 50 mg/day. The control mean plasma volume was 2,664 +/- 96 ml, cardiac index 3.9 +/- 0.2 liters/min/m2, stroke volume index 52 +/- 2 ml/beat/m2, systemic vascular resistance 1,351 +/- 80 dynes s cm-5, plasma aldosterone 8.6 +/- 1.0 ng/dl and 24-hour urinary excretion of metanephrines 0.371 +/- 0.044 mg. On renin-sodium profiling in 23 patients, 12 were classified into a normal group and 11 into a low-renin group; none had high renin values. Based on multiple regression analysis, the 24-hour urinary excretion of total metanephrines appeared to be the single most important factor explaining 28% of the variability in systolic blood pressure (BP). After therapy with oral hydrochlorothiazide, the elevated systolic BP decreased (p less than 0.0001) and diastolic BP decreased (p less than 0.005), with concomitant reduction in systemic vascular resistance (p less than 0.03). Patients in both the normal- and low-renin groups had normal plasma volume and responded similarly to thiazide diuretic therapy, without symptomatic side effects.
Aged↗
Diagnostic significance for coronary artery disease of abnormal Q waves in the "lateral" electrocardiographic leads.
To determine the diagnostic significance for coronary artery disease of abnormally large Q waves in leads I, aVL, V5 and V6--the "lateral" electrocardiographic leads--the electrocardiograms of 240 patients who had undergone cardiac catheterization were studied. First, the electrocardiograms of 99 subjects proved normal by cardiac catheterization (group 1) were studied to determine the values of the durations of Q waves in leads I, aVL, V5 and V6 that should be exceeded to be considered abnormal. These values were 30, 30, 20 and 25 ms, respectively. Then, 67 patients were identified who had abnormal Q waves in at least 1 of these leads (group 2) and 74 patients with at least 1 angiographic abnormality but without abnormal Q waves in any of these leads (group 3). Group 2 had generally more extensive left ventricular disease and a higher prevalence of anterior, inferior and apical healed myocardial infarction (MI) than group 3. However, compared with group 3, group 2 had lower prevalences of significant narrowing of the coronary arteries that supply the left ventricular lateral wall. Within group 2, abnormal Q waves in leads I and aVL (traditionally designated high lateral MI) were associated with anterior as well as apical MI, and abnormal Q waves in leads V5 and V6 (traditionally designated anterolateral MI) were associated with inferior as well as apical MI. Thus, abnormal Q waves in leads I, aVL, V5 and V6 tend to reflect apical rather than lateral MI and the term anterolateral MI is especially misleading.
Adult↗
Importance of the distance and velocity of electrical forces in the diagnosis of inferior wall healed myocardial infarction: a vectorcardiographic study.
The vectorcardiograms of 41 patients with angiographically proved inferior myocardial infarction (MI) and 51 normal subjects were analyzed to determine whether it is the time (in milliseconds) or the distance (in millivolts) of the initial superiority directed forces of ventricular depolarization that is increased more by inferior MI, and whether parameters derived from both the initial superior time and distance can be used to detect inferior MI. The 10 best individual and the 10 best paired criteria for inferior MI involve superior distance, either alone or used in the calculation of average velocity (in volts per second), and the product of initial superior time and distance (in millivolts per second). The 2 best individual criteria for inferior MI are: inferior velocity more than 0.0065 V/s (sensitivity 71%, specificity 100%) and superior distance more than 0.39 mV (sensitivity 68%, specificity 100%). These diagnostic performances are superior to those of the best criterion that involves only the duration of the initial superior forces, i.e., initial superior time longer than 28 ms (sensitivity 49%, specificity 98%) (chi 2 = 8.42, p less than 0.005 and chi 2 = 6.31, p less than 0.025, respectively). Initial superior distance and parameters calculated from both initial superior distance and time are better vectorcardiographic criteria for inferior MI than are criteria that involve only initial superior time.
Diagnosis, Differential↗
The effect of nitroglycerin on forearm arterial distensibility.
Nitroglycerin acts, in part, to reduce arterial impedance, and thus left ventricular work. The reduction in arterial impedance is largely attributable to a fall in systemic vascular resistance, but may also be due to an increased distensibility of the arterial tree. In this study, volume distensibility of forearm arteries was calculated from measurements of pulse-wave velocity before and during intravenous nitroglycerin infusion. Since a fall in blood pressure itself increases arterial distensibility, the induced blood pressure change was controlled as a variable by repeating the measurements with the subject's forearm in a plastic cylinder and repeating the measurements at a variety of altered cylinder pressures. At every studied pressure, nitroglycerin infusion increased forearm arterial distensibility, demonstrating another way in which nitroglycerin reduces left ventricular afterload. Since the pulsatile portion of cardiac work is approximately 10% of total work, the magnitude of this nitroglycerin effect on cardiac function is probably small.
Adult↗
Importance of the terminal portion of the QRS in the electrocardiographic diagnosis of inferior myocardial infarction.
The scalar electrocardiograms of 64 patients with inferior wall myocardial infarction (MI) and 87 normal subjects were quantitatively analyzed to determine the respective contributions of the initial and terminal portions of the QRS to the diagnosis of inferior MI. Of the 10 best individual electrocardiographic criteria for inferior MI, 7 were Q-wave criteria and 3 were criteria that consisted of delayed termination of the QRS in leads II or III. Combining the best terminal QRS criterion (the QRS in lead III ending at least 20 ms later than the QRS in lead I) with the 7 best Q-wave criteria and the best Q-wave criterion (Q wave 40 ms or longer in lead aVF) with the 3 best terminal QRS criteria, resulted in criteria with better sensitivities and overall diagnostic performances than those of the individual criteria. Analyzing the vectorcardiograms that were also available in 26 of the patients with inferior MI and 34 of the normal subjects showed that the delayed inscription of the end of the QRS in leads II and III in patients with inferior MI is due to redirection of the terminal forces of ventricular depolarization. The terminal portions of the QRS complexes in the limb leads, considered both alone and in conjunction with traditional measurements of Q waves, contain information that is useful for diagnosing inferior MI.
Electrocardiography↗
Comparison of optimal scalar electrocardiographic, orthogonal electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic criteria for diagnosing inferior and anterior myocardial infarction.
A scalar electrocardiogram (ECG), orthogonal ECG and vectorcardiogram (VCG) were recorded in 46 normal persons, 38 patients with inferior myocardial infarction (MI) and 22 patients with anterior MI proved at cardiac catheterization. The diagnostic information provided by the scalar ECG, orthogonal ECG and VCG was quantitatively analyzed and the optimal criteria for diagnosing inferior and anterior MI exhibited by each method were identified. The optimal scalar electrocardiographic, orthogonal electrocardiographic and vectorcardiographic criteria, respectively, are: For inferior MI: initial superior duration in lead aVF greater than 30 ms (sensitivity 63%, specificity 100%), superior/inferior amplitude ratio in lead Y greater than or equal to 0.2 (sensitivity 63%, specificity 96%), initial superior duration greater than 29 ms or initial superior distance greater than 0.4 mV in the frontal plane loop (sensitivity 68%, specificity 100%). For anterior MI: initial anterior duration in lead V2 less than 20 ms or initial anterior duration in lead V3 less than 25 ms (sensitivity 91%, specificity 100%), anterior/posterior duration ratio in lead Z less than 0.3 (sensitivity 73%, specificity 98%), initial anterior duration less than 15 ms in the transverse plane loop (sensitivity 64%, specificity 98%). There were no significant differences among the performances of the optimal scalar ECG, orthogonal ECG and the VCG for diagnosing inferior MI. However, the performance of the optimal scalar ECG was superior to that of the optimal orthogonal ECG and the optimal VCG for diagnosing anterior MI (chi-square = 5.20, p less than 0.02 and chi-square = 7.14, p greater than 0.01, respectively).
Adult↗
Lack of relationship between plasma insulin and glucagon levels and angiographically-documented coronary atherosclerosis.
In 120 consecutive patients undergoing diagnostic coronary arteriography, fasting blood glucose, plasma insulin, glucagon, serum cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations were measured. The insulin-glucose ratio and insulin-glucagon ratio were calculated. Forty-five patients had normal coronary arteries, 19 had single vessel coronary artery disease and 56 patients had multiple vessel disease. Fasting blood glucose was greater than 120 mg/100 ml in 37 patients (group A) and included 9 of the 10 known diabetics, 3 of whom were being treated with insulin. Seventy-seven patients included in group B had fasting blood glucose concentration less than 120 mg/100 ml. Patients with multiple vessel coronary disease in either group had higher blood glucose and cholesterol concentrations than those with normal coronary arteries or the ones with single vessel disease, but they did not have higher plasma insulin or glucagon levels nor increased insulin-glucose or insulin-glucagon ratios. With comparable extent of coronary artery disease patients in group A had higher plasma insulin levels and insulin-glucagon ratios than those in group B, but no correlation exists between the presence or extent of coronary atherosclerosis and these variables in either group. Thus, neither fasting plasma insulin level nor insulin-glucagon ratio predicts the status of underlying coronary atherosclerosis in either diabetics or nondiabetics.
Blood Glucose↗