Developing a protocol for collaborative drug therapy management.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to S L Reichert.
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As regional wall motion abnormality (RWA) is the first sign of ischaemia, transoesophageal echocardiography was evaluated as a monitoring device in 51 patients undergoing abdominal aortic surgery. Wall motion of the entire left ventricular wall (nine segments) was semiquantitatively evaluated 15 min before and after aortic cross-clamping and 3 h after declamping. In addition, limb lead II of the electrocardiogram was simultaneously recorded. At baseline, RWA was present in 16 patients (31%). New or worsened RWA 15 min after aortic cross-clamping was seen in 17 patients, of whom 11 had persistent RWA, i.e. it was still present 3 h after declamping. This was associated in seven patients with enzymatically documented myocardial infarction. Only one infarct patient demonstrated ST segment changes of more than 1 mm. Thus, a single electrocardiographic surface lead is insensitive for perioperative myocardial ischaemia detection. Furthermore, new and/or worsened RWA after aortic cross-clamping, which persists until 3 h after declamping, is, to a considerable degree, associated with perioperative infarction.
Because mitral valve competence after mitral valve reconstruction is awkward to assess during this procedure, we evaluated in this respect transesophageal color-coded Doppler echocardiography in 23 patients undergoing mitral valve reconstruction for severe mitral regurgitation. Transesophageal echocardiographic examinations were performed after induction of anesthesia but before sternotomy (baseline), after mitral valve repair before decannulation, and at sternal closure, all at similar mean aortic pressure and echocardiographic instrument settings. The degree of mitral regurgitation by transesophageal color Doppler flow mapping was visually quantified on a 5-point scale (0 to 4), pending the left atrial extent of the regurgitant jet. This was compared with the degree of mitral regurgitation by left ventricular cineangiography performed within several weeks after operation and also visually quantified on a 5-point scale (0 to 4), with use of the right anterior oblique projection. There was good correlation between the two methods (r = 0.83; p less than 0.001). We conclude that residual mitral regurgitation, as assessed by transesophageal color flow mapping in the operating room, highly correlates with the ultimate mitral regurgitation by cineangiography. Therefore transesophageal echocardiography can be helpful for evaluation of mitral valve competence during mitral valve reconstruction, and hence, in case of repair failure, allow valve replacement in the same surgical session, thus avoiding reoperation.
To determine the value of a recently developed 7.5 MHz annular array two-dimensional and color flow Doppler transducer for examination of the proximal parts of the left coronary artery, 25 patients were studied immediately after coronary artery bypass surgery, and the findings were compared with preoperative coronary angiograms. With two-dimensional imaging, the left main coronary artery was visualized in 22 patients (88%), left anterior descending in 13 patients (52%), and circumflex in 22 patients (88%). Stenoses were correctly identified in four of four left main coronary arteries, in five of seven left anterior descending arteries, and in none of four left circumflex arteries. Adding color flow to two-dimensional imaging in 20 patients, we found a disturbed flow signal, as a sign of stenosis, in five of five left anterior descending artery and two of four left circumflex artery stenoses. We concluded that these initial findings with this new 7.5 MHz annular array two-dimensional and color flow Doppler transducer, are promising in imaging and detection of stenoses in the proximal parts of the left coronary artery.