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P J Baxter

Publications and source records attributed to P J Baxter.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

Prevalence and prognosis of electrocardiographic findings in middle-aged men.

A screening examination including an electrocardiogram (limb leads only) coded by the Minnesota Code, using rigorous quality control was done on 18 403 male civil servants aged 40 to 64. The association of the findings with coronary heart disease has been tested in relation to age trends, symptomatic history, and coronary heart disease mortality rates in the ensuing five years. The results were positive for Q waves, left axis deviation, ST depression, and T wave changes (including minor T wave items as an isolated finding), ventricular conduction defects, and atrial fibrillation; but they were generally unimpressive for increased R amplitude and for lengthening or shortening of the PR interval, QT interval duration, premature beats, and extremes of heart rate. The prognosis of specific electrocardiographic findings discovered at screening is quite different from when they arise in clinical practice. Among the 6 per cent of men in this study with patterns suggesting ischaemia, the subsequent coronary heart disease mortality was little more than 1 per cent per year; and among those who were symptom free it was even less.

Adult

Ambulatory electrocardiography in car workers.

A previous study in a car assembly plant showed that production-line workers had a lower incidence rate of heart attacks than executive staff. In the present study some major coronary risk factors and 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiograms were investigated in two age-matched samples of 30 middle-aged men drawn from these occupations. Men with a known history of heart disease were excluded. Compared with production-line workers, executive staff on average had a higher diastolic blood pressure (P less than 0.05) and fewer took heavy exercise during their leisure time (P less than 0.05). Ventricular premature beats (VPB was also similar for each of the periods of work, leisure and sleep. Apart from isolated ectopic beats, disturbances of rhythm were uncommon, and neither VPB nor other arrhythmias appeared to be induced by occupational factors.

Adult

Angiosarcoma of the liver in Great Britain, 1963-73.

Deaths attributed to primary angiosarcoma of the liver (ASL) in Great Britain between 1963-73 were reviewed by submitting available histological material to a panel of histopathologists and by obtaining full occupational and residential histories for the cases agreed as ASL by the panel. On average four recorded cases of ASL occurred a year, but in only one-third of the cases submitted did the panel agree with the original diagnosis. Only one of the agreed cases could be confidently associated with exposure to vinyl chloride.

Adult

Myocardial infarction in car assembly workers.

The incidence of myocardial infarction and the return to work for survivors were studied among the employees of an English car assembly plant by analysing 12 811 medical records of persons employed during the seven years between January 1966 and December 1972. The standardized morbidity ratio of myocardial infarction found in this study calculated on the basis of incidence rates reported by Kinlen )1973) for the Oxford community in which the factory was situated was 90. The standardized morbidity ratio from production line workers only was 66 and that for the monthly paid staff 272. Of the production line workers who survived the attack 22 (90%) returned to their previous jobs without undue difficulty and with two exceptions within four months of the onset of their illness; there was no relation between length of absence and age at the time of attack. These findings suggest that workers in mass production jobs such as car assembly are not special risk from myocardial infarction, and most of those who survive a heart attack are able to return to their former work. Taken with Kinlen's (1973) study and that of Armstrong et al. (1972) in Edinburgh, they also bear out mortality data by indicating that in Oxfordshire the incidence of coronary heart disease is lower than the British average.

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