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Query: UMLS:C0018799 (heart disease)
 34,133 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The role of pindolol in treating ventricular arrhythmia was studied in 43 patients with this disorder. Of these patients, 23 had coronary heart disease, 5 had valvular disease, and 15 had no demonstrable heart disease. patients underwent acute drug testing with 20 mg pindolol (phase 1) followed by maintenance therapy (phase 2) for 3 days (20 to 80 mg daily). Efficacy during both phases was evaluated by ambulatory monitoring and treadmill exercise testing. During acute drug testing, 50% of te patients responded. A concordant response between acute drug testing and phase 2 monitoring was seen in 81% (p less than 0.005) of patients and between acute drug testing and phase 2 exercise testing in 88% (p less than 0.005). Arrhythmia was suppressed during the phase 2 exercise test in 53% of patients; these included 80% of the patients without heart disease and 50% of those with coronary heart disease (not significant). During phase 2 monitoring, 60% of patients without heart disease responded vs. 25% with coronary heart disease (not significant). Side effects occurred in 12 patients (28%). These included congestive heart failure (3 patients); fatigue, lightheadedness, and insomnia (2 patients each); nausea, tremor, urinary retention, and bronchospasm (1 patient each); and aggravation of arrhythmia (7 patients). It is concluded that although pindolol alone is marginally effective for treating ventricular arrhythmia in patients with coronary heart disease, it appears to be more valuable in those without heart disease, especially when arrhythmia is provided by exercise. Acute drug testing proved highly predictive of the results with maintenance therapy and is a valuable rapid-screening procedure for identifying potential responders to pindolol.
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PMID:Pindolol for ventricular arrhythmia. 710 35

We report two patients with solitary thalamic abscesses, occurring among 91 consecutive patients (2.2%) with computed tomography (CT)-diagnosed and surgically-verified brain abscess experienced in our college during 1975 to 1991. A 9-year-old girl with congenital heart disease experienced frequent vomiting followed by left hemiparesis and deterioration of consciousness. CT demonstrated a right thalamic ring-enhanced lesion. Purulent material was aspirated via a burr hole. She died of heart failure on the 5th postoperative day. Autopsy disclosed diffuse brain swelling and an encapsulated abscess in the right thalamus, which had ruptured into the third ventricle. A 30-year-old female experienced headache, nausea, and vomiting, which progressed to somnolence and right hemiparesis. CT demonstrated a left thalamic ring-enhanced lesion. Purulent material was aspirated by stereotactic procedures. All symptoms had resolved by the end of the 2nd postoperative week.
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PMID:Solitary pyogenic thalamic abscess--two case reports. 750 3

Clinical features of cerebellar infarction in the territory of the superior cerebellar artery (SCA) were investigated in six male patients, ranging in age from 50 to 69 years. In all patients, there were MR images of infarction located in the area supplied by the SCA. The lesion was on the left-side in 2, right-side in 3 and bilateral (recurrent) in 1 patient. The onset of disease occurred with nausea, vomiting and floating sensation, with no overt brain stem signs other than symptoms of unilateral cerebellar ataxia and dysarthria. Five of the 6 patients had heart disease and cerebral angiography without definite evidence of SCA occlusion, strongly suggesting occlusion of the artery at its periphery due to cardiogenic embolism. A comparison of these 6 patients with those reported previously in Japan suggests that patients with SCA occlusion may be divided into two distinct subgroups: one manifesting diffuse brain stem signs in addition to cerebellar signs, and the other showing cerebellar signs as the only neurologic manifestation. In the former group, comprising the vast majority of patients, SCA occlusion occurred at the origin of the vessel due to a thrombus under a state of hypertension, diabetes mellitus or malignancy, producing signs of brain stem involvement, such as dissociating sensory disturbance and Horner's sign. While in the latter group, which included these 6 patients, paucity of brain stem signs, absence of definite cerebral angiographic evidence of SCA occlusion, and the presence of heart disease were distinguishing clinical features. Cardiogenic cerebral embolism was probably the underlying pathology in many of the cases and the functional prognosis was favorable.
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PMID:[Cerebellar infarction in the territory of the superior cerebellar artery, presenting a predominant cerebellar symptom--with special reference to its pathophysiology]. 761 47

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is a chemotherapeutic agent which has been used to treat many solid tumors including cancers of the breast, ovary, cervix, bladder, prostate gland and gastrointestinal tract. Side effects related to the drug include bone marrow suppression, stomatitis, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. However another less frequent but lethal event cardiotoxicity--appears to have been ignored by physicians. Recently, two cases of cardiac toxicity induced by 5-FU have been encountered here. One patient developed supraventricular tachycardia and the other illustrated silent myocardial infarction with congestive heart failure. Since these side effects may result in death when 5-FU is prescribed to those patients who have had previous heart disease or are concomitantly receiving inevitable radiotherapy over the cardiac region, it should be recommended with extreme caution.
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PMID:Cardiotoxicity related to 5-fluorouracil chemotherapy: a report of two cases. 778 Aug 86

The US Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved combined estrogen/progesterone compounds for postcoital contraception (PCC), yet administering them has been an accepted practice for at least 10 years. The health service at the University of Rochester in New York has a formal protocol to dispense PCC to female students who have had unprotected intercourse and wish to prevent pregnancy. The women must have experienced unprotected intercourse within 72 hours prior to presenting at the clinic. The clinicians screen the women for absolute contraindications to oral contraceptives (OCs), which include blood clotting disorders, stroke, heart disease, cancer of the breast or reproductive tract, and liver tumors. They also determine whether conception has occurred. If indeed it has occurred, and the patient has given written consent, the clinicians administers 2 times the dosage of 1 OC to the patient and a repeat dose 12 hours later. She is seen at the clinic 3 weeks later. Clinic workers review their protocol every 6-12 months as part of the quality assurance program. Providers who do not approve of PCC are asked not to see students requesting PCC. Between March, 1985, and February, 1991, the service's staff administered PCC 209 times. 18.7% of PCC patients took PCC more than once. Date rape was responsible for 3 episodes of unprotected intercourse. Pregnancy occurred in 4 of the 209 PCC episodes (1.9%). 3 of these pregnancies were not midcycle exposures. All 4 cases had received PCC within 24 hours of unprotected intercourse. They all underwent an abortion. The expected pregnancy rate for unprotected intercourse without PCC would be 11-14%. Side effects were nausea (19%), vomiting (13%), and other symptoms (8%), including headache, cramps, menstrual irregularities, or abdominal pain. Another possible PCC is mifepristone, which was 100% effective in a study in Scotland. It probably will not be available soon in the US because of the controversy surrounding its use as an abortifacient.
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PMID:Six years of clinical experience using postcoital contraception in college women. 824 18

The nature of most syncopal episodes, previously unknown, was recently elucidated by new diagnostic techniques such as the use of the tilt test. The vasovagal syncope can be clinically diagnosed by means of the tilt test. The transitory loss of consciousness during prolonged orthostasis is typically associated with sudden hypotension and bradycardia, which are commonly preceded by relative tachycardia and by premonitory symptoms such as pallor, nausea, asthenia, yawns, hyperventilation, mydriasis, humming, lasting several minutes. The nature of the vasovagal reflex is now better understood: in subjects with vasovagal syncope, during prolonged orthostasis, it was observed a fall in the venous return, inducing an increased sympathetic drive to the heart (with positive inotropic and chronotropic effect) and a lower ventricular filling. The powerful contraction around an almost empty cardiac chamber induces the activation of ventricular mechanoreceptors, and through a reflex mechanism, a sudden increase in the vagal and a sudden reduction in the sympathetic drive. These autonomic changes are responsible for a sudden hypotension and bradycardia. The discussion is still open about the origin of the reduced venous return: it probably originates from a redistribution in the blood volume, due to a venous pooling in the lower limbs or from a reduced muscle tone, because many subjects with vasovagal syncope are slender and with less developed muscle apparatus. Others suggest that a reduction in the sympathetic drive to the vessels, responsible for a progressive hypotension in the minutes preceding syncopal episodes, is the origin of the reduced venous return. In this review a diagnostic pattern for the assessment of the vasovagal syncope is suggested. The medical history, clinical examination, electro- and echocardiogram, chest x-ray identify two main groups of patients (with or without cardiopathy) who will follow different diagnostic protocols. The therapy of vasovagal syncope, which is based on beta-blockers, scopolamine, dysopiramide and plasma expanders, is reviewed.
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PMID:[Vasovagal syncope]. 851 54

A twenty-four-year-old, white, athletic woman, free of heart disease, experienced an episode of fear when she was assaulted in the street without physical injury while under-going twenty-four-hour Holter monitoring. She developed an important sympathetic response in which, besides the symptoms characterized by palpitations, chest pain, dyspnea, asthenia, dizziness, nausea, and profuse cold sweating, she had an episode of paroxysmal atrial tachycardia. The causes and mechanism of this not well-documented event in humans are discussed.
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PMID:Paroxysmal atrial tachycardia recorded by Holter monitoring during an episode of fear. A case report. 868 68

Twelve patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer were treated with combination chemotherapy of etoposide, epirubicin and carboplatin (EEC). At relapse, all patients had metastases to the bone and/or soft tissues. The median number of courses was 3 (range 1-10). Epirubicin was not administered in 6 patients because of heart disease. Three patients (25%) had a partial response and 8 (67%) showed no change. The overall response rate was 92%. Pain relief was observed in 4 patients (44%). Four patients were still alive after a mean observation period of 18 months (range 4-36 months), while 8 died with a mean survival period of 11 months (range 7-15 months). Nausea, appetite loss, and alopecia were observed in some patients. All except one patient experienced bone marrow suppression, 5 of whom were treated with granulocyte-colony stimulating factor. EEC chemotherapy in hormone-refractory prostate cancer is considered to be more effective than other kinds of chemotherapy, whereas it frequently induces bone marrow suppression.
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PMID:Etoposide, epirubicin and carboplatin in hormone-refractory prostate cancer. 873 24

Paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) may have numerous electro-physiologic mechanisms. The most common type of SVT is AV-nodal reentry tachycardia (60%) followed by the bypass tract-mediated SVT (preexcitation. 30%) and a smaller group (10%) comprising paroxysmal atrial flutter or fibrillation and atrial ectopic tachycardia. In persons with otherwise normal hearts symptoms are usually mild and include palpitations or an uneasy feeling in the chest. But some describe precordial pain. Weakness, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and even syncope. Whenever possible a 12-lead-ECG during an episode of SVT should be obtained. If not possible the use of several Holter-ECG or of an event-recorder may be helpful. Conversion of a SVT can be accomplished by vagal maneuvers or intravenous adenosine (6-18 mg bolus injection). Further diagnostic procedures should prove or rule out a significant structural heart disease. Therapeutic options (expectative, pharmacological prophylaxis, invasive electrophysiologic testing and catheter-mediated modification or ablation) are chosen according to the objective threat (e.g. ventricular fibrillation due to 1:1 conducted atrial fibrillation in a preexcitation syndrome) and the subjective complaints. Definitive healing of the AV-nodal reentry tachycardia and the bypass tract-mediated SVT can be achieved by use of catheter-mediated modification or ablation in 95 to nearly 100%.
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PMID:[Modern therapy of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia]. 1009 47

In every year since 1984, cardiovascular disease has claimed the lives of more females than males. More than 450,000 women succumb to heart disease annually, and 250,000 die of coronary artery disease. Despite the proportions, most women believe they will die of breast cancer. The perception that heart disease is a man's disease and that women are more likely to die of breast cancer is alarming. Although women develop heart disease about 10 years later than men, they are likely to fare worse after a heart attack. The poorer outcomes are due, in part, to the failure to identify heart attack symptoms. Approximately 35% of heart attacks in women are believed to go unnoticed or unreported. However, because of increased age, women are more likely to have co-morbid diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. In women, not only is "tightness" or discomfort in the chest a warning sign, but in addition, nausea and dizziness are common indicators of myocardial ischemia. Other symptoms include breathlessness, perspiration, a sensation of fluttering in the heart, and fullness in the chest. In comparison to men, women are less likely to undergo tertiary care interventions such as cardiac catheterization, angioplasty, thrombolytic therapy, and bypass surgery; to participate in cardiac rehabilitation; and to return to work full-time after myocardial infarction. In the past, most research about treatments for heart disease focused on men, and gender differences have been ignored. Recent studies are enrolling enough women to test if there are differences between men and women in outcomes. One of the major areas of research relates to estrogen and hormonal replacement therapy to reduce the relative risk of heart attack and stroke. The Women's Health Initiative is a major NIH-sponsored trial that addresses the issue of primary prevention of cardiac disease by hormonal replacement therapy. The results will be available in 2004. The Heart Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS), disappointingly, did not show a significant reduction of coronary events in women taking hormonal replacement therapy, nor did the Estrogen Replacement and Atherosclerosis (ERA) trial of 309 postmenopausal women who underwent coronary angiography. New insight into the role of vitamins, phytoestrogens and other natural sources, and selective estrogen receptor modulators may provide other options for management. Until then, modification of risk factors and healthy life style choices are recommended for reducing the risk of cardiac disease. In fact, the key to a healthy heart in the year 2000 appears closely tied to life style choices. Prevention of disease is the key, and current recommendations are simply to stop smoking, or do not start; treat and control blood pressure >140/90 mm Hg; manage elevated lipids by diet, exercise, and cholesterol-lowering medications (if necessary); treat diabetes; lose weight so that BMI is <25; walk for 20-30 minutes at least three times a week; and take an aspirin tablet daily.
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PMID:Heart disease in women. 1114 May 44


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