Effect of maintenance digoxin therapy on aerobic performance and exercise left ventricular function in mild to moderate heart failure due to coronary artery disease: a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial.

Despite 200 years of use, the ability of digitalis glycosides to improve exercise capacity in patients with congestive heart failure remains controversial, partly because of imprecise end points and suboptimal study design. Therefore, this question was examined in 10 ambulatory patients (8 men and 2 women) aged 46 to 70 years (mean 57.8) in sinus rhythm with mild to moderate chronic stable congestive heart failure due to coronary artery disease and systolic left ventricular dysfunction (ejection fraction 32 +/- 12).

An unusual combination of findings in renal transplantation.

Three cases involving renal scans that showed both severe photopenia and also increase in uptake in a rim surrounding the renal graft are presented. As previously mentioned in the literature, the bad prognostic import of photopenia is confirmed. The increased rim of activity has been rarely mentioned in the literature in the past and its possible causes are discussed.

Radionuclide localization of massive pulmonary hemorrhage.

Lung scans with technetium sulfur colloid were performed in ten patients with life-threatening hemoptysis and nondiagnostic chest roentgenograms. Localized deposition of radionuclide was demonstrated in five of the six patients who were studied during active bleeding. These abnormalities were confirmed bronchoscopically in four patients, and lung scans provided clinically useful information regarding the bleeding site that had not been available from the medical history, physical examination, or chest roentgenogram.