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

In order to facilitate for the general physicians the making of a suitable selection of babies who are in the most urgent need of specialized treatment at cardiac centres, simple methods for diagnosing and qualifying congenital cardiovascular diseases were elaborated. The following "minor" criteria were taken for suspecting a CHD: 1) cardiorespiratory distress following birth, 2) sequentially repeated Apgar score below normal, 3) "pneumonia" symptoms with respiratory distress, dyspnoea and cyanosis, attacks of unconsciousness, 4) feeding difficulties, failure to thrive, inexplicable irritability, 5) presence of other congenital anomalies. The almost certain presence of serious heart disease should be recognized in children, showing the following "major" symptoms: 1) permanent cyanosis, pallor or greyish colour, 2) cardiorespiratory failure (resembling usually symptoms of pneumonia), 3) ECG patterns indicating ventricular hypertrophy signs, 4) other significantly abnormal ECG patterns (e.g. AV and intraventricular conduction disturbances), 5) cardiac enlargement and lung vascularity abnormalities in chest X-rays, 6) weak, or impalpable arterial, particularly femoral pulses, femoral arterial pressures significantly lower, than at upper extremities, bounding pulses and high-pressure amplitude in arms and legs, 7) abnormal heart sounds and pathologic heart and vascular murmurs. A diagnostic "key", based upon evaluation of the "major criteria" facilitates the diagnosis and differentiation of the most important CHD's at neonatal and infantile age. When using this "key" one should keep in mind the relative frequency of incidence of particular lesions. The initial diagnoses by the above "key" were verified in 354 patients by cardiovascular catherisation, angiocardiography, surgical exploration, and for by autopsy. The diagnoses were perfectly accurate in 83.6% cases, in further 11.3% cases being also accurate but were supplemented by some details, and had to be corrected in only 5.1% cases.
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PMID:[Congenital heart diseases in newborns and infants; early detection, differentiation and accuracy of clinical diagnoses (author's transl)]. 122 66

Foetal and neonatal consequences of exogenous intoxications are nowadays better apprehended especially regarding alcohol. Alcoholism during pregnancy is the cause of the syndrome of foetal alcoholism described in France by Lemoine in 1968 and then by Jones and Smith in 1973. The prevalence of the table is 1 out of 700 to 800 deliveries for the severe forms and concerns especially by not exclusively the most underprivileged sections of the population and shows in: -- a very specific dysmorphy of skull and face and other abnormalities which give to the face a singular and persistent aspect; -- various and frequent malformative abnormalities with a pronounced tendency for cardiopathy. Most of them are latent or of late discovery; -- a constant growth lateness which is also part of the table as well as prematurity and spontaneous abortion. Hypotrophy is moderate, total, and cerebral; -- effects on central nervous system: it is the third overall cause of mental lateness after trisomy and deficiency of neural canal. Other causes and themselves to alcohol to produce these effects that show themselves on badly affected children or dead in utero because of macroscopic and microscopic alterations of numerous cerebral structures. From a clinical view point, they show themselves by abnormalities of the neural canal, a decreasing of the crane perimeter, neonatal neurologic troubles due to deficiency in the first hours of life, followed during the second and third day by a table evoking a weaning syndrome. The evolution on a medium term is characterized by the persistence of the crane and skull dysmorphy modified by parents phenotype, a persistence of the growth lateness leading to dwarfism in the severe forms. In the moderate and medium form thinness and paleness are spectacular and malformations exist in 2/3 of the cases. The neurologic and behaving evolution is documented by some prospective studies. They tend to indicate the persistence for the severe forms of troubles concerning hyperactivity, lack of attention and decreasing of the crane perimeter as well as a main mental lateness in half of the cases. The study made in Roubaix shows that behaving and intellectual troubles are more pronounced when the dysmorphy is marked. The effects of alcohol lead to a syndrome of foetal alcoholism when the level of alcoholization is high which correspond to K. Sulik's experimental data in 1982. On the other hand, a relation dose-effect has not been yet demonstrated except for hypotrophy. This is the same for threshold-dose. There is no residual effects confirming that alcoholism and its intensity during pregnancy have a direct effect upon descendants. As a matter of fact after weaning and recovery children are again normal and normotroph. Pregnancy and especially delivery are privileged period for detection of maternal alcoholism and beginning of a prevention in a view to avoid. These effects during a later pregnancy.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:[Clinical aspects, epidemiologic progression of fetal alcoholism: a current daily problem]. 280 13

A 55-year-old Caucasian woman suddenly developed substernal chest pain at rest accompanied by pallor, diaphoresis, nausea, and vomiting. Physical examination was otherwise unremarkable. The resting ECG showed T-wave inversion in all anterior leads which returned to normal 24 h after the onset of the symptoms. The pain was eliminated promptly by sublingual isosorbide dinitrate. "Impending" acute myocardial infarction was diagnosed. Coronary arteriography, however, failed to reveal any change in any major coronary artery but an apical aneurysm of the left ventricle was detected. As the complement-fixation test for Chagas' disease was positive, the diagnosis of chronic Chagas' heart disease was then established. This unusual clinical manifestation of Chagas' disease is thought to be the consequence of a transient imbalance in the cardiac autonomic nervous system, which is considered to play a central role in the pathogenesis of chronic Chagas' heart disease. In addition, the present case may alert clinicians to the thus far neglected atypical chest pain, which is frequently seen in chagasic patients but whose etiology remains obscure.
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PMID:Chronic Chagas' heart disease presenting as an impending myocardial infarction: a case favoring the neurogenic pathogenesis concept. 359 60

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

Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is the most common sustained arrhythmia to present in the neonatal and infancy age group. Predisposing factors (congenital heart disease, drug administration, illness and fever) occur only in 15% of infants. The presentation of SVT in the neonate is frequently subtle, and may include pallor, cyanosis, restlessness, irritability, feeding difficulty, tachypnea, diaphoresis and grunting. Congestive heart failure is more common in infants under 4 months of age (35% incidence). Age-related differences in the distribution of SVT mechanisms occur in different age groups. In infants under 1 year of age, the mechanisms underlying SVT are atrial tachycardia (15%), AV nodal re-entry tachycardia (5%), and AV reciprocating tachycardia (80%). Options for acute management include: use of the diving reflex, intravenous adenosine, transesophageal pacing, and cardioversion. Intravenous administration of verapamil should be avoided. Data regarding freedom from recurrence of untreated SVT in the first year of life are limited, and may be in the range of 25-60%. Chronic therapy with digoxin, beta-blockers, flecainide, sotalol and amiodarone has proved effective in controlling recurrent episodes of SVT. Radiofrequency ablation can be employed successfully in medically refractory cases, but should be avoided in this age group (increased complication rate).
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PMID:Supraventricular tachycardia in the neonate and infant. 1082 87

Two male castrated Whippet littermates were presented at 1 year of age for pallor, tachycardia, systolic heart murmur, dark yellow to orange feces, intermittent lethargy, pigmenturia, and muscle shivering or cramping after exercise. Persistent macrocytic hypochromic anemia with marked reticulocytosis and metarubricytosis was found when CBC results were compared with reference values for Whippets. Increased serum creatine kinase activity and hyperkalemia also were sometimes present over the 4-year period of evaluation. Progressively increasing serum concentrations of N-terminal prohormone brain natriuretic peptide suggested cardiac disease. Erythrocytes from the whippets were less osmotically fragile but more alkaline fragile than those from control dogs. Erythrocyte phosphofructokinase (PFK) activities and 2,3-diphosphoglycerate concentrations were decreased. Restriction enzyme-based DNA test screening and DNA sequencing revealed the same mutation in the muscle-PFK gene of the Whippets as seen in English Springer Spaniel dogs with PFK deficiency. This is the first report of PFK deficiency in Whippet dogs. In addition to causing hemolysis and exertional myopathy, heart disease may be a prominent clinical component of PFK deficiency in this breed and has not been previously recognized in PFK-deficient English Springer Spaniels.
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PMID:Hemolysis, myopathy, and cardiac disease associated with hereditary phosphofructokinase deficiency in two Whippets. 1922 57

Few studies have examined the relationship between cerebrovascular disease, vascular risk factors, and Parkinson's disease (PD), although 1 study found small-vessel disease (SVD) to be the main subtype of cerebrovascular disease. In this study we compared the extent and topography of SVD and assessed associated vascular risk factors in autopsy-proven PD cases and community-dwelling controls. Seventy-seven PD and 32 control brains from the Sydney Brain Bank were assessed microscopically by a single examiner blinded to the diagnosis. SVD was assessed by grading perivascular pallor, gliosis, hyaline thickening, and enlargement of perivascular spaces in the white matter underlying the superior frontal and primary motor cortices, basal ganglia, and white matter tracts. A history of vascular risk factors (hypertension, heart disease, diabetes, and cigarette smoking) was obtained. Groups were compared using stepwise multiple regression analysis. There was significantly greater frontal pallor (P = .004) and widening of perivascular spaces in the globus pallidus interna (P = .007) in controls compared with PD. Hyaline thickening and widening of perivascular spaces in the frontal white matter, hyaline thickening in the motor white matter, and widening of perivascular spaces in the caudate nucleus were more common in the control group, but did not reach significance. The prevalence of vascular risk factors and SVD pathology was significantly lower in autopsy-proven PD compared with controls (P = .03) living in the same community. The results of this study support the need for further research in this area.
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PMID:Small-vessel disease in patients with Parkinson's disease: a clinicopathological study. 2303 13