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Query: UMLS:C0018801 (heart failure)
 72,216 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Water restriction is a slow and difficult way to treat dilutional hyponatremia during diuretic therapy of congestive heart failure. An i.v. infusion of 400-1 400 mmol hypertonic saline combined with repeated i.v. injections of loop diuretics was used instead in 9 cases (6 patients). In 4 cases with dominating left heart failure the serum sodium concentration increased and the heart failure was not aggravated as judged from pulmonary rales and body weight. Two of the five cases with dominating right heart failure responded in the same favourable way, but body weight increased 1-2 kg and hyponatremia reappeared in three. The only difference observed between responders and non-responders was that the responders were free from leg edema. This treatment of dilutional hyponatremia seems worth further cautious use in situations in which water restriction is troublesome, but it should probably be reserved for patients without severe right heart failure.
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PMID:Treatment of dilutional hyponatremia in congestive heart failure. 738 23

Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDC) accounts for 25% of cases of heart failure in the United States. Understanding the relationship between an inciting event or agent and the development of IDC has progressed only recently. Once IDC has developed, treatment is palliative and little can be done to alter the natural course of the disease. Active myocarditis, a suspected precursor of IDC, is myocardial inflammation and injury without ischemia. The disease ranges from a self-limited flulike illness to one of serious consequence with arrhythmias, heart failure, or death. Many agents have been associated with myocarditis, and the clinical manifestations depend on an interplay between the inciting agent and the host response. The development of a murine model and the expanded use of endomyocardial biopsy using the Dallas criteria have increased our understanding of myocarditis and its sequelae. Therapy consists of managing symptoms using conventional medical regimens for heart failure. Immunosuppressive therapy should be reserved for patients with biopsy-proven disease who have failed conventional therapy. Continued deterioration warrants ventricular assistance and consideration of cardiac transplantation.
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PMID:Myocarditis and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy. 765 92

To accurately evaluate thyroid disorders in pregnancy, the physician must understand the physiologic changes that occur both in thyroid gland size and in thyroid function tests. The effect of thyrotoxicosis on pregnancy outcome largely depends on whether metabolic control is achieved. Women who become euthyroid on treatment usually can expect satisfactory outcomes. Propylthiouracil is considered to be the drug of choice for treating thyrotoxicosis during pregnancy. Because of the significant risk of hypothyroidism and obvious goiter in the infant, the use of iodide should be reserved for severe disease, such as thyroid storm or heart failure. Thyrotoxic infants may need antithyroid treatment until TSAbs are metabolized. Since overt hypothyroidism is often associated with infertility, it is uncommon in pregnancy. Hypothyroid women who do become pregnant, however, have an increased risk of low-birth-weight or stillborn infants. These women may require a greater dosage of thyroid hormone during pregnancy. The effects of subclinical hypothyroidism are not well defined. Accordingly, the need for treatment hinges on the woman's clinical history. Infants of hypothyroid mothers usually show no evidence of thyroid dysfunction, but those who are hypothyroid should receive prompt thyroid replacement therapy. To minimize the sequelae of congenital hypothyroidism, mass screening of infants and prompt treatment of those affected is recommended. During pregnancy, thyroid nodules should be evaluated by ultrasound and fine-needle aspiration or tissue biopsy. Radioiodine scanning should be avoided during pregnancy. If thyroid cancer is diagnosed, pregnancy should not delay treatment. Because postpartum thyroid dysfunction is fairly common yet difficult to detect, physicians and patients should be aware of the symptoms and risk factors.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Thyroid disease in pregnancy. ACOG Technical Bulletin Number 181--June 1993. 790 64

In this paper the authors have evaluated the incidence and the clinical implications of sick euthyroid syndrome (SES) in a group of 144 patients in a department of internal medicine. SES is an alteration of thyroid hormone values in the absence of a thyroid disease, which is seen in patients suffering from serious diseases. Having classified SES into 3 subgroups according to the different alterations seen in the values of T3, T4, FT3, FT4, TSH, rT3 and TBG, they show the hypotheses that explain the biochemical mechanisms which are at the basis of these hormonal alterations. Fourteen of the 144 patients under observation were excluded as they were suffering from ascertained or subclinical thyroid disease. Thirty (23% of cases) of the remaining 130 patients had alterations of the thyroid hormones in accordance with SES diagnosis. Of these 30 patients, 19 had hormone values found in SES type I (63%), 2 in SES type II (6.5%) and 9 in SES type III (30.5%). In SES type I the diseases seen, in order of frequency, were: obstructive chronic bronchopneumopathy with acute respiratory failure, diabetic ketoacidosis, neoplasms, ischemic heart disease, cardiac failure, chronic renal failure, liver diseases, acute cerebral vasculopathies, sepsis and collagenopathies. The disease seen in the 2 cases of SES type II was obstructive chronic bronchopneumopathy with acute respiratory failure. In SES type III the diseases seen were, in order of frequency: diabetic ketoacidosis, lung diseases, ischemic heart disease, cardiac failure, peripheral arteriopathies, acute cerebral vasculopathies, neoplasms, liver diseases, acute renal failure. The incidence of SES in 23% of the admitted to hospital patients was found to be slightly higher than in other studies; this could be explained by a stricter selection of inpatients: in fact self-sufficient patients or those not needing urgent admission, were sent to an efficient out patient clinic where necessary examinations were quickly carried out, hospitalization being reserved for patients with more serious illnesses. We would like to underline how the incidence of SES is much greater than that of what is known as thyroid disease (23% compared to 5%), thereby confirming that it is the most frequent cause of alterations of thyroid hormones. With regard to the pathogenetical hypotheses, it is confirmed that in SES, the reduction of T3 values is accompanied by an increase in the values of rT3 as for reduced activity of 5-desiodinasis enzyme. In SES type III the increase of T4 values is due to the increase of TBG resulting in an increase in the link for T4 and therefore a reduced peripheral hormone activity.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
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PMID:[The euthyroid sick syndrome. Its incidence and clinical significance in an internal medicine department]. 802 42

The aim of this study was to evaluate the status of the native aortic valve in patients operated for acute dissection of the ascending. aorta (ADAA). Between November 1972 and November 1991, 93 patients were operated for ADAA. There were 76 men and 17 women (average age 54 +/- 12 years). The aortic valve was reserved in 80 cases (86%). In 13 patients (14%) aortic valve replacement was associated with replacement of the ascending aorta. The early mortality was 29% (27/93). The global actuarial survival rates at 5, 10 and 15 years were 60.2 +/- 5.2%, 49.7 +/- 6.1% and 26.9 +/- 9.9% respectively. Fifty patients (94%) in whom the native aortic valve was preserved were followed up. Nine patients (18%) died and average of 97 +/- 46 months after surgery. The causes of death were aortic rupture or extension of the dissection (N = 4), ischemic cardiac failure (N = 2), renal failure (N = 1), cerebrovascular accident (N = 1) and sudden death (N = 1). Forty one patients underwent transthoracic echocardiography. Seven patients developed severe aortic regurgitation, 6 of whom had to be reoperated for aortic valve replacement. Echocardiography showed absence of of minimal aortic regurgitation in 22 cases and mild aortic regurgitation with normal left ventricular function in 12 cases (in 2 cases, aortic valve replacement was associated with surgical treatment of another valvular lesion or of coronary artery disease). Therefore, aortic valve replacement was performed in 8 patients 61.5 +/- 51.2 months after the initial operation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:[Preservation of the aortic valve in acute dissection of the ascending aorta]. 821 67

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) in children is different to that observed in the adult because ischemic heart disease is exceptionally rare in this age group. The arrhythmia sometimes presents with cardiac failure or loss of consciousness. VT complicates the outcome of operated Tetralogy of Fallot, arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia and some cardiac tumours. Cardiomyopathies are also a cause of VT but it must be noted that ventricular dysfunction may be the result of a prolonged arrhythmia and will disappear after return to sinus rhythm. Many cases of childhood VT occur without any patent cardiac disease even after extensive investigations. Some are benign with a good prognosis, such as salvoes of VT or sustained attacks of so-called ventricular Bouveret. Others carry a more reserved prognosis and require active treatment. Incessant tachycardia of the newborn is difficult to stop may be cured without sequellae. Torsades de pointes is sometimes iatrogenic complicating congenitally long QT syndromes with or without deafness or familial nature, and which may be likened to adrenergic VT. Amiodarone and betablockers are the best antiarrhythmic agents. Investigations with a diagnostic or therapeutic objective are easier in older children but these techniques, whilst not being systematic, do not exclude the very young children. Ablation techniques progress and the limited indications of surgery and implantable defibrillators have to be considered case by case.
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PMID:[Ventricular tachycardia in children]. 826 8

The vast majority of children who have symptoms (ie, cardiac failure, palpitations, dizziness) due to supraventricular tachycardias are successfully managed by medical treatment. Antiarrhythmic drug therapy may be complicated by side effects or become ineffective so that radiofrequency catheter ablation, which destroys the myocardial structure responsible for arrhythmias, can now offer an attractive option to lifelong drug therapy. Immediate results for supraventricular tachycardias due to a reentry mechanism or to an atrial ectopic focus are good, with a success rate over 80% and rare immediate complications. However, the long-term sequelae of the procedure on the growing heart have not been established and the risk of subsequent atrial and ventricular arrhythmias must be considered in young patients. For this reason, I believe that today, radiofrequency ablation should be reserved for young patients who have life-threatening symptoms or who have arrhythmias that are refractory to medical treatment, and for older patients who will need a lifelong drug therapy.
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PMID:Drugs and ablation in the treatment of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias in children. 828 85

Therapy with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors was developed approximately 15 years ago as a novel therapeutic approach to hypertension. Although ACE inhibitor therapy was initially reserved for patients with severe hypertension, extensive clinical experience has broadened its use. These agents should now be considered as cornerstone therapy for patients with symptomatic heart failure and are of proved value in preventing the development of this syndrome. This article reviews the key studies that have documented the efficacy of ACE inhibitors in improving clinical outcome for patients with overt congestive heart failure, as well as for those with asymptomatic left ventricular dysfunction.
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PMID:Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition in congestive heart failure: benefit and perspective. 836 54

As patients survive to advanced age, they commonly develop degenerative valvular heart disease as well as degenerative diseases of other organ systems. In addition, a reservoir of patients with other forms of valvular heart disease develop progressive symptomatology with advancing age. These patients often present a challenge to the cardiologist in both diagnosis and management. Inasmuch as these patients tolerate cardiovascular surgery less well than their younger counterparts, criteria for surgical intervention may often need modification. Chronologic age must be recognized as but one of many factors affecting physiologic function. Knowledge of aging-related alterations in function must be employed in both diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms. At times, input from other health-care providers who specialize in the care of the elderly may assist in the assessment of these patients. Surgery should be reserved for higher-risk patients who are severely symptomatic or for those in whom severe symptoms are likely to soon develop based on the natural history of the disease process involved. Those less symptomatic elderly patients with otherwise preserved physiologic functions also may be offered valvular surgery. The availability of nonsurgical, albeit at times palliative, techniques to relieve aortic or mitral stenosis provides an alternative therapeutic option to cardiothoracic surgery. Advances in understanding the pathophysiology and medical therapy of heart failure will continue to contribute to an improved quality of life for those for whom only medical options exist.
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PMID:Valvular disease in the elderly. 841 22

The term heart failure is a complex of clinical syndromes caused by "neuroendocrine" compensatory responses that are renal, neural, hormonal and hemodynamic in nature. Activation of these multiple systems--as a result of renin, angiotensin II and the action of circulatory catecholamines--causes the release of norepinephrine vasopressin and aldosterone. These responses contribute to the arteriolar constriction and salt and water retention that promote central pooling with an increase in pre- and afterload of the already failing heart, causing deterioration of the congestive heart failure (CHF). Therapy for this clinical syndrome is aimed at reducing both pre- and afterload with vasodilators, which produce a profoundly favorable effect on left ventricular performances. Beta blocking agents, which inhibit the increased sympathetic mediated vasoconstriction, up-regulate beta receptors and thus restore responsiveness to the failing heart. Inotropic agents, such as digitalis and amrinone/milrinone are reserved for patients with dilated failing heart and impaired systolic function; recently a synthetic atrial natriuretic factor has been developed for potential use in CHF. Ultrafiltration is also used in refractory preoperative CHF with cardiac abnormalities. Neuroendocrine responses to CHF are treated today directly by improving central hemodynamic imbalance in these patients.
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PMID:Management of congestive heart failure: neuroendocrine approach. 845 56


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