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Biomedical subjects

R C Little

Publications and source records attributed to R C Little.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1984

The physiologic basis for clinical edema.

Edema is a common clinical sign indicating expansion of the interstitial fluid volume. Factors that regulate the size of this compartment are capillary fluid dynamics, interstitial fluid pressure, lymph flow, and interstitial compartment compliance, all of which are delicately balanced. An appreciation of the manner in which common disease processes upset this delicate balance can lead to a better understanding of clinical edema.

Absorption↗
PubMed1982

Cardiac preload, afterload, and heart failure.

The performance of the heart is regulated by the level of myocardial contractility and the cardiac preload and afterload. These factors, previously of interest primarily to basic scientists, are now clinically important for an understanding of both cardiac function and therapeutics. In this brief review, the essence of these concepts is summarized and related to the treatment of cardiac failure.

Aorta↗
PubMed1980

The cause and clinical significance of diastolic heart sounds.

Auscultation becomes more meaningful when the forces that cause the cardiac sounds are understood. We review the mechanisms responsible for the diastolic heart sounds and correlate them with various clinical conditions that affect their timing, loudness, and pitch. A careful search for these soft and illusive sounds should be included as part of every cardiac examination since their proper identification can supply important diagnostic and prognostic information.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

The effect of acute hypoxia on the viscoelastic properties of the myocardium.

The viscoelastic properties of the isolated rabbit papillary muscle were studied by constructing a semilogarithmic length-tension curve before and after it had undergone 5 minutes of stress relaxation before, during, and after exposure to a solution aerated with 95 per cent nitrogen and 5 per cent carbon dioxide. Stress relaxation was accomplished in each treatment group by a reduction in the tension intercept of the log length-tension curve without significant change in its slope. There was no significant change in either of these parameters between the control, hypoxia, and recovery groups. These findings lead to the conclusions that: (1) the loss of muscle tension during stress relaxation is not due to a change in the elastic properties of the myocardium and (2) hypoxia does not increase the fundamental stiffness characteristics of the cardiac muscle.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1975

Hypoglycemia and glycogen deficits in fetuses of hypothyroid pregnant rats.

Maternal hypothyroidism, when induced by surgical thyroidectomy with parathyroid hormone replacement, results in fewer live fetuses and smaller fetuses at the 22nd day of gestation. The hypothyroid mother shows the ability to mobilize adequate amounts of glucose even at the expense of her own reserves but the supply of glucose to the fetus appears to be impaired. These fetuses have subnormal skeletal muscle and liver glycogen and are severely hypoglycemic. The impaired development of these fetuses may result from alterations of either transplacental carbohydrate transport or placentofetal carbohydrate metabolism.

Animals↗