[Prognosis of asymptomatic or slightly symptomatic chronic aortic insufficiency. Apropos of 54 patients followed for an average of 36 months].

A series of 54 patients with chronic aortic insufficiency with little (38) or no symptoms (16) were studied. All had severe regurgitation leading to discussion of aortic valve replacement. All patients (44 male and 10 female) underwent clinical, radiological, electrocardiographic, hemodynamic and angiographic investigation with assessment of left ventricular volume by monoplane 30 degrees cineangiography on entry to the study.

[Coronary bypass surgery. Results after 5 years : mortality - morbidity].

The improvement in the expectation and quality of life of patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery has been studied in the short term but there are relatively few studies with follow-up periods of over five years. The results in 239 patients operated on between 1970 and 1976 are presented. The preoperative data was obtained from a computerised filing system; studies were made at 3 months, at an average of 60 months, and in 78 patients with follow-up exceeding 5 years.

[Prognosis of primary non-obstructive cardiomyopathies].

The prognosis of congestive cardiomyopathy was studied in 132 consecutive patients (110 male, 22 female, average age 45 +/- 11 years) in whom a thorough clinical evaluation had excluded a secondary cause. The patients presented with left ventricular failure, a history of systemic embolism, syncope or radiological cardiomegaly. Right (100 p.

[Auricular and left ventricular compliance in acute and chronic mitral insufficiency].

Left atrial and ventricular compliance has been studied in 25 cases of chronic mitral incompetence (CMI) and 9 cases of acute mitrale incompetence (AMI). Left atrial compliance was evaluated by the ratio between maximal variation in volume and corresponding maximal variation in pressure; it was found to be higher in cases of CMI than in cases of AMI. Left ventricular compliance was evaluated by various indices (Diamond, Mirsky, Gaasch, Laird), and was found to be increased equally in the chronic and acute types.

[Echocardiographic criteria of obstructive cardiomyopathy].

In defining the characteristic abnormalities of obstructive cardiomyopathy (OCM), the echocardiogram appears to offer an excellent method. We have used this technique in 22 adults presenting with this condition, and have compared the results of echocardiography with those taken from 17 normal subjects. All those with OCM had asymmetrical hypertrophy of the septum (meaning hypertrophy of the septum without proportional thickening of the posterior wall of the left ventricle); certain other facts were noted: an undilated left ventricular cavity, good systolic function, and indications of poor diastolic compliance.

[Study of survival in angiographically determined ischemic cardiopathies: Apropos of 345 medically treated patients].

A study of 345 patients with ischaemic heart disease due to coronary arteriosclerosis which had been demonstrated by coronary arteriography, and seen between November 1967 and December 1974, was directed towards finding out what had happened to the patients so that, by an actuarial study of their survival, the prognostic significance of the arteriographic and ventriculographic studies could be determined. The prognostic value of the clinical findings has shown the importance:--of the presence of clinical left ventricular failure;--of the presence of coronary insufficiency with frequent attacks; of the presence of sequelae of infarction as seen on the ECG at rest;--on the length of the symptomatic history before arteriography. The assessment of the prognostic potential of the arteriographic findings has emphasised:--the fundamental importance of diffusion of stenoses and occlusions of several main coronary trunks;--the high risk if the lesion affects the left coronary trunk; the high risk of prognostic significance of lesions on the IVA.

[Fatal emboligenic ulcerative endomyocardial fibrosis in filariasis].

A man of 54 had been treated over a 15 month period for pulmonary tuberculosis when aged 41, and had lived on the Ivory Coast and then in the Cameroons for 20 years. Eye signs were discovered in January 1971, and these, together with an eosinophilia, pointed to a possible filariasis which was later confirmed by immunofluorescence and the fixation of complement. Three months later, the patient developed congestive cardiac failure.

[Myocardial infarction in early postoperative complications in operations of myocardial revascularization: incidences, clinical study and mechanisms].

A study of the electrocardiograms and enzyme levels after surgery to revascularise the myocardium in a group of 174 consecutive patients has allowed us to demonstrate 19 cases of early postoperative myocardial infarction (EPOMI) (10.9%). 10 of these cases had no clinical features of EPOMI; 9 had clinical signs (collapse of altered systemic pressures, arrhythmias) or haemodynamic disorders (raised left atrial pressure).

[Hemodynamic effects of the intravenous form of acebutolol].

Acetubolol was administered intravenously to 11 patients with various heart disorders, without any adverse effects. The bradycardic effect of this compound is slight. It did not change the auriculo-ventricular conduction in 10 patients with sinus rhythm.

[Evaluation of the results of myocardial revascularization surgery by exercise tests under electrocardiographic control. Correlations with control coronography].

A myocardial revascularisation procedure was carried out on 68 patients with obstructive atheroma of the coronary arteries associated with severe angina pectoris. In 58 cases a total of 97 vein grafts were used, and in 10 cases the internal mammary artery was anastomosed to the anterior descending artery (using a vein graft in 5 of them). Before operation the patients had selective coronary arteriography, and a maximal exercise test using a bicycle ergometer.

[Tricuspid incompetence after surgical correction of mitral and mitrio-aortic value diseases. Reasons for its persistence or its recurrence].

53 patients with mitral or aortic valve disease, observed consecutively, had before operation a marked tricuspid incompetence. 24 had, in the course of corrective mitral or mitral-aortic correction, a surgical attempt at treatment of tricuspid regurgitation; in theremaining 29, tricuspid incompetence was not corrected surgically. The course of the latter group was studied (average follow-up period after operation = 18 months): the operative mortality was 10.

[Coronary anastomosis. Angiographic study and statistical correlation in 140 patients with angiogenic coronary atheroma].

A great number of studies devoted to coronary artery anastomoses on the experimental animal or on post-mortem material, while the in vivo studies are relatively rare. The results of these studies are often contradictory, and many questions are still unresolved concerning the part played by the anastomoses in natural history of coronary artery atheroma. On 140 patients, all suffering from angina due to coronary atheroma, a study of the anastomoses visible on coronary arteriograms was undertaken, together with a statistical analysis of the various correlations between the presence or not of coronary artery anastomoses and the various criteria, anatomical, clinical and electrocardiographic.

[Biopsy of the pericardium. Diagnostic value in subacute and chronic pericarditis, apropos of 70 cases].

The aetiology of pericarditis is often difficult to assess. To try to clear up this problem, a pericardial biopsy through a left lateral thoracotomy was performed in 70 cases in which the cause could not be established by the usual means (including pericardial paracenthesis in 32 cases). They included either subacute pericarditis, dry or with effusion (biopsy being undertaken as an average 45 days after the clinical onset), or chronic pericarditis with effusion.