Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The characteristics and determining factors of seasonal variations of the blood pressure (BP) were studied in 20 normal subjects and 219 chronic stable chronically all patients, most of whom were ambulatory. The BP was measured repetitively over twelve months and measurements in the lying position repeated after one minute of orthostatism were performed in Winter and in Summer. In normal subjects, the BP decreased from June to reach its lowest value in August to return to the Winter values from October. The mean BP of the three Winter months was 130/79 mmHg and the seasonal lowering averages 5 +/- 5/5 +/- 6 mmHg (m +/- SD) (p < 0.01), with marked individual differences. The Summer decrease in BP was observed both lying down (3/4 mmHg) (p = 0.01) and standing (5/6) (p = 0.0001). In the patient group, the Summer decrease in BP was 4/3 mmHg. During the orthostatic measurements, it was 4/4 mmHg lying down and 6/5 mmHg when upright. Symptoms of orthostatic hypotension were reported spontaneously 10 times during the Winter and 21 times during the Summer months (p = 0.04) and occurred in the upright position in 12 patients (6%) in Winter and 25 patients (12%) in Summer (p = 0.025). The Summer decrease was greater in women than in men. Blood pressure lowering drugs increased this effect and the association of several drugs had an additive effect. It increased with age but disappeared after 70-80 years of age. The very elderly patients on antihypertensive therapy showed a marked decrease in BP during the Summer, especially in the upright position. The Summer decrease in BP is important for the management of elderly patients with hypertension or cardiac failure. It may favorize symptoms of orthostatic hypotension and increase the risk of malaise.
 ...
PMID:[Seasonal variations of blood pressure in normal subjects and patients with chronic disease]. 948 70

Congenital atrioventricular block is defined (Yater) as a documented conduction defect in a young subject with unquestionable bradycardia in the absence of a history of infection which might have caused the condition after birth. It is a rare condition (1 out of 20,000 births) and may be isolated or associated with another congenital malformation. Four cardiac malformations are classically associated: endomyocardial fibrosis, morphological abnormalities close to the conduction system: corrected transposition, left isomerism; patent ductus arteriosus and atrial septal defect apparently unrelated but the most common; the association of mitral regurgitation in adults, although the significance is not very clear. Isolated block is often observed in patients with mothers suffering from autoimmune disease, often clinically latent. Anti Ro/SS-A and La/SS-B antibodies cross into the foetal circulation and cause inflammation of the conduction tissues but the causal mechanism is not known. The diagnosis of the conduction defect is sometimes made during foetal life by echocardiography. After birth, the diagnosis is made by electrocardiography but the block is not always complete or permanent, its degree often increasing with time. In addition, in advanced degrees of block, the escape rhythm tends to slow down. Long-term follow-up studies have revised the previously considered good prognosis of isolated congenital atrioventricular block but advances in cardiac pacing provide satisfactory treatment. In the foetus, isolated atrioventricular block is usually associated with an escape rhythm > 60/min and enables normal vaginal delivery; a low heart rate < 55/min and anasarca carry a poor prognosis. In the neonate, pacing is indicated in babies with cardiac failure and a heart rate < 55/min. Follow-up by Holter monitoring, exercise testing and echocardiography is justified in children and adolescents; the patients may become symptomatic at any age. Pacing is essential in symptomatic cases (malaise, ventricular dysfunction) and useful in cases with long QT intervals, frequent ventricular extrasystoles and wide ventriculogrammes. Pacing is not always easy in children. Epicardial pacing by thoracotomy or an epigastric approach is possible but endocavitary pacing is to be preferred using thin pacing catheters introduced via the subclavian vein and small pacemakers implanted in a sub or prepectoral site. A pacing mode which restores the normal atrioventricular sequence is theoretically superior to single ventricular pacing even if rate responsive frequency.
 ...
PMID:[Congenital atrioventricular block]. 1032 58

Carvedilol is the first beta-blocker to obtain approval for treatment of heart failure. Improvement in hemodynamic parameters was initially documented in three methodologically sound studies involving 156 patients. Follow up was limited to 16 weeks. A placebo-controlled, double-blind trial involving 1094 patients showed beneficial effects on overall mortality of 4.6% in absolute terms after a median follow up of 6.5 months. This benefit was not found in another trial involving 415 patients followed on average for 19 months. Results for symptom-based criteria conflict. When treatment is introduced very gradually, adverse effects (malaise) seem to be minor and infrequent. Carvedilol's place in the treatment of heart failure is not yet precisely documented.
 ...
PMID:Carvedilol. 1034 47

Arterial (and predominantly aortic) stiffening with age is now acknowledged as the cause of isolated systolic hypertension, and the predominant cause of cardiac failure in the elderly. Aortic stiffening is gauged clinically from increase in brachial pulse pressure, but this underestimates change with age, since aortic pulse pressure increases far more than brachial (on account of substantial amplification of the peripheral arterial pressure pulse in young adults). Aortic stiffness can be measured as pulse wave velocity, but this too underestimates ill effects on the heart and central vessels, since the direct effect is amplified by early return of wave reflection. Ill effects of arterial stiffening can best be assessed through analysis of pressure wave contour from the carotid or radial site. Exploitation of relatively constant brachial transfer function enables the central aortic pressure wave to be synthesised from the radial pulse. This new clinical approach links traditional sphygmography (originally introduced in France) with conventional cuff sphygmomanometry, and is being evaluated in clinical and epidemiological studies.
 ...
PMID:Mechanical principles. Arterial stiffness and wave reflection. 1047 73

We analyzed 50 cases of bicuspid aortic valve endocarditis in patients who presented to St. Thomas' Hospital from 1970 through 1998. These represented 12.3% of the 408 cases of native valve endocarditis (NVE). All patients were male, and their mean age was 39 years. Forty-five of the 50 cases were pathologically proven; 47 were clinically definite according to the Duke criteria and 49 according to our modifications of the Duke criteria. Viridans streptococci and staphylococci accounted for 72% of cases. The prevalences of clinical features were similar to those seen in NVE: fever (temperature >/=38 degrees C, 74%) and malaise (70%), although dyspnea was more frequent (36%). There was a high incidence of serious complications (72% heart failure; 30% periannular abscesses). Surgery was required during the initial admission in 82% of cases. Overall mortality was 14%, and surgical mortality was 9%. Few patients knew they had a "heart condition," and a bicuspid aortic valve was detected in only 35% of echocardiograms performed before surgery.
 ...
PMID:Bicuspid aortic valve--A silent danger: analysis of 50 cases of infective endocarditis. 1067 38

(1) Carvedilol is the first betablocker to obtain approval in France for the treatment of heart failure. (2) The improvement in haemodynamic parameters was initially documented in three methodologically sound studies involving a total of 156 patients, with follow-up limited to 16 weeks. (3) A placebo-controlled, double-blind trial involving 1,094 patients showed a beneficial impact on overall mortality of 4.6% in absolute terms after a median follow-up of 6.5 months. This benefit was not found in another trial involving 415 patients followed for 19 months on average. Results for symptom-based criteria are conflicting. (4) When treatment is introduced very gradually, adverse effects seem to be minor (malaise) and infrequent. (5) The place of carvedilol in the treatment of heart failure is not yet precisely documented.
 ...
PMID:Carvedilol: new preparation. Encouraging but inadequate data. 1084 56

Congestive liver disease can be one of the clinical aspects of chronic heart failure. Fulminant hepatic failure can be a consequence of ischemic liver disease secondary to cardiogenic shock. We report a patient with chronic heart failure who was admitted to our hospital presenting general malaise with abnormal liver function tests, prothrombin time and renal failure. The study of viral and autoimmune liver diseases were negative. She did not consume hepatotoxic drugs. She presented encephalopathy without initial evidence of shock. On the fourth day, she presented clinical deterioration compatible with cardiogenic shock. Laboratory abnormalities were similar to those seen in congestive and ischemic liver disease. The patient died 24 hours later. The histology showed congestive and ischemic liver disease. There are several reports of chronic liver diseases without a clear etiology, caused by constrictive pericarditis or restrictive myocardiopathy. In this case, the patient presented fulminant hepatic failure without clear evidence of progressive heart failure. We emphasize the importance of cardiac diseases as possible causes of liver diseases without another clear explanation.
 ...
PMID:[Fulminant hepatic failure. Atypical form of cardiac failure presentation]. 1118 58

We analyzed a series of 112 consecutive cases of left atrial myxoma diagnosed in a single French hospital (72 women and 40 men; age range, 5-84 yr) over 40 years, from 1959 to 1998. Symptoms of mitral valve obstruction, the first arm of the classic triad of myxoma presentation, were present in 75 patients (67%), with mostly cardiac failure or malaise. Symptoms of embolism, the second frequent presentation in the classic triad, were observed in 33 cases (29%) with 1 or several locations, essentially cerebral emboli with stroke. Males are statistically at greater risk than females of developing embolic complications. The third arm of the classic triad consists of constitutional symptoms (34%) with fever, weight loss, or symptoms resembling connective tissue disease, due to cytokine (interleukin-6) secretion. Younger and male patients have more neurologic symptoms, and female patients have more systemic symptoms. Seventy-two patients (64%) had cardiac auscultation abnormalities, essentially pseudo-mitral valve disease (53.5%) and more rarely the suggestive tumor plop (15%). The most frequent electrocardiographic sign was left atrial hypertrophy (35%), whereas arrhythmias were uncommon. The greater number of myxoma patients (98) diagnosed preoperatively after 1977 reflects the introduction of echocardiography as a noninvasive diagnostic procedure. However, there was no significant reduction in the average time from onset of symptoms to operation between patients seen in the periods before and after 1977. The tumor diameter ranged from 1 to 15 cm with a weight of between 15 and 180 g (mean, 37 g). The myxoma surface was friable or villous in 35% of the cases, and smooth in the other 65% cases. Myxomas in patients presenting with embolism have a friable surface; those in patients with cardiac symptoms, pseudo-mitral auscultation signs, tumor plop, and electrocardiogram or radiologic signs of left atrium hypertrophy and dilatation are significantly the larger tumors. The long-term prognosis is excellent, and only 4 deaths occurred among our 112 cases over a median follow-up of 3 years. The recurrence rate is low (5%), but long-term follow-up and serial echocardiography are advisable especially for young patients.
 ...
PMID:Clinical presentation of left atrial cardiac myxoma. A series of 112 consecutive cases. 1138 92

We describe an elderly case of idiopathic dilatation of the right atrium in which right-sided heart failure was exacerbated by drug-induced bradyarrhythmia. An 84-year-old man, who had a 10-year history of episodic edema, was treated with proscillaridin and verapamil hydrochloride at another hospital. He had experienced a poor appetite and general malaise 2 months previously, and exertional dyspnea 10 days previously. On admission, he had jugular venous dilatation, systemic edema, and hepatomegaly. On auscultation, a third heart sound originating from the right ventricle and systolic murmur of tricuspid regurgitation were heard. An admission electrocardiogram showed an atrial standstill and junctional escape rhythm with a QRS rate of 31 beats/minute. Chest roentgenogram revealed a bilateral pleural effusion and cardiomegaly with a cardiothoracic ratio of 76%, but no pulmonary congestion. Echocardiogram disclosed idiopathic dilatation of the right atrium and secondary tricuspid regurgitation. He was given a diagnosis of right-sided heart failure due to idiopathic dilatation of the right atrium exacerbated by bradyarrhythmia, which was suspected to derive from the side effects of proscillaridin and verapamil hydrochloride. Thus, these agents were withheld. In addition, the patient reduced sodium intake and was treated with diuretics and beta-adrenergic agonist. Thereafter, right-sided heart failure markedly improved. At the time of the last follow-up 16 months after discharge, he felt well.
 ...
PMID:[An elderly case of idiopathic dilatation of the right atrium in which right-sided heart failure was exacerbated by drug-induced bradyarrhythmia]. 1152 70

In its simplest and most succinct definition, heart failure can be defined as an inability of the heart to meet the metabolic demands of the body. Despite the diverse etiologies of heart failure in the pediatric population, the presentation of heart failure represents a common constellation of symptoms, signs, and physical findings. In infants, an inability to maintain growth either secondary to decreased nutritional intake or an increased catabolic state is a hallmark of heart failure. Infants exhibit increased sympathetic tone with excessive diaphoresis and increased heart rate. Physical findings in the infants with congestive heart failure (CHF) include increased work of breathing, tachypnea and hepatomegaly. In older children, in contrast, new onset heart failure may be less overtly symptomatic. Malaise, decrease in the level of daily activity, and weight loss may be present. Symptoms of abdominal pain and nausea and anorexia can be present and sometimes divert attention from the real etiology. Physical findings include rales and peripheral edema. If there is hepatomegaly, there will likely be hepatic tenderness as well. A gallop rhythm and tachycardia are commonly present. The long-term treatment of CHF in children includes digoxin, diuretics and afterload reduction with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors. Digoxin decreases sympathetic tone and improves growth in infants. Diuretics should be used to relieve symptoms but may not be necessary in all children. ACE inhibitors are increasingly valuable in maintaining cardiac function long term. New uses of medications include the addition of spironalactone (Aldactone, G. D. Searle & Co., Chicago, IL) which, in adults, has been shown to significantly decrease both the death rate from CHF and the need for hospitalization. Beta-Blockers have been used in children in limited studies and may have a role in the treatment of patients with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. Surgical treatment, such as partial vectriculectomy, has shown short-term benefit and has been used sparingly in infants.
 ...
PMID:Treatment of heart failure in infants and children. 1172 82


<< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>