[Blockade of the left stellate ganglion using a drug reservoir pump. A new treatment method in the QT syndrome].

In patients with long QT syndrome (LQTS) the therapy of first choice is the administration of propranolol (2-4 mg/kg of body weight daily). If not effective alone, a combination of propranolol and phenytoin (200 mg daily) has proved to be effective. Nevertheless, in about 7% of cases medical therapy failed to prevent serious arrhythmic events.

[ST segment changes in long-term ECG in healthy heart probands].

100 healthy medical students were studied with 24-h Holter monitoring for ST-segment evaluation. Six recordings (1.8% of males and 11.

[Noninvasive assessment of aortic and mitral valve insufficiencies with dynamic magnetic resonance tomography].

Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was performed in patients with aortic regurgitation (N = 14) and/or mitral regurgitation (N = 13), documented and graded for severity by angiography. Eight healthy persons were studied for comparison. Turbulent retrograde blood flow through incompetent valves causes signal loss of blood, thus permitting detection of the valvular defect.

[Diagnostic significance of angioscopy in patients with coronary heart disease].

Coronary angioscopy (CA) using ultrathin fiberscopes was performed in 30 patients with coronary heart disease during cardiac catheterization and in 11 patients during bypass surgery. For percutaneous CA the angioscope was introduced from the femoral artery through a 9F guiding catheter. During short-time occlusion of the coronary ostium by the tip of the guiding catheter the viewing field was flushed with Ringer's solution.

[Global and regional left ventricular function following acute coronary artery occlusion and emergency aortocoronary venous bypass operation].

Complications following percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), such as coronary artery occlusion, spasm, or dissection, frequently require urgent surgical intervention. Out of 26 patients from our hospital, 12 who underwent emergency coronary bypass grafting because of balloon catheter complications with a total ischemic time of 100-255 min, were restudied in the late postoperative period by clinical examination and by coronary and left ventricular angiography. Left ventricular angiograms were evaluated quantitatively for global and regional function using the AVD system (Siemens Elema, Erlangen).

[Diagnosis of myocardial ischemias with long-term electrocardiography: spontaneous variability and modification by nitrate therapy].

To evaluate spontaneous variability of ST-segment changes within the Holter ECG, in 20 patients with documented coronary heart disease (CHD) long-term ambulatory ECG recordings were performed over 3 consecutive days, when the patients were only receiving short-acting nitrates. ST-segment alterations per day were measured as the area beneath the baseline (mV x min), and were compared day-to-day intraindividually. The intra-day variations of ST-segment area alterations were a factor of about 10, when compared with the baseline values.

[Mortality and morbidity of thromboembolism in drug prevention--5-year analysis].

In a period of five years a general medical prevention of postoperative venous thromboembolic disease was tested in major gynaecological operations, in patients undergoing radium insertions for gynaecological cancer and in patients with caesarean section. Preoperatively was the beginning of the daily therapy with Dihydroergotamine (DHE) and every four days the therapy with Acetylsalicylic acid (ASS). The results of 2,346 therapy-cycles with medical prevention of thromboembolic disease in 2,280 patients are reported.

Coronary angioscopy during cardiac catheterization and cardiac surgery.

Coronary angioscopy (CA) was performed in 30 patients (pts) during cardiac catheterization (Group 1) and in 11 pts during coronary bypass surgery (Group 2) using ultrathin fiberoptic angioscopes (phi 1.2-1.8 mm).

Nocardial endocarditis after aortic valve replacement. Reports of two cases.

Nocardial sepsis occurred after aortic valve replacement in two patients. A septic suture aneurysm of the aortotomy was resected and the prosthesis exchanged in one of them. The other received conservative treatment for sternal osteomyelitis and local mediastinitis.

Biotinylated nucleic acid hybridization probes for potato virus detection.

cDNA libraries, representative of potato viruses X (PVXc strain) and Y (PVY degrees strain) genomes were obtained. A PVX cDNA cloned fragment was sequenced and biotinylated to be used as hybridization probe for the detection of purified virus or nucleic acid extracts of infected plants. Dot hybridization assay was sensitive to detect 4 ng of viral particles, corresponding to about 200 pg of viral RNA.

The clinical significance of coronary angioscopy in patients with coronary heart disease.

The feasibility and safety of coronary endoscopy was evaluated in three sets of investigations: in 7 cadaver hearts, in 11 patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery, and in 30 patients during routine cardiac catheterization prior to coronary balloon angioplasty (PTCA). In three of the seven cadaver hearts the lumen of the arteries appeared normal. In three diffuse atherosclerotic lesions, and in one, a high-grade, tight stenosis were observed.

[An automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator. The initial clinical experience].

An automatic, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (AICD) which generates a high-energy current impulse is now available for the management of treatment-resistant malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Such a device (manufactured by Intec/CPI) was implanted into eight patients with coronary heart disease or dilated cardiomyopathy, and in four after surgery for postinfarction ventricular arrhythmias. All patients had had life-threatening episodes of ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia: the arrhythmias were refractory to multiple drug therapy (mean of 6.

Angiotensin evokes in polyploid rat glioma cells hyperpolarization-depolarization responses and cross-desensitization with bradykinin.

Angiotensins I, II and III induced a hyperpolarizing response of up to 1 min duration followed by a depolarizing response of up to 4 min when applied by pressure pulses or iontophoresis to polyploid rat glioma cells C6-4-2. The hyperpolarization (depolarization) was associated with a 50% decrease (no measurable change) in membrane resistance. The reversal potential (ca.

Atrial natriuretic polypeptide hormones induce membrane potential responses in cultured rat glioma cells.

Atrial natriuretic hormones (ANHs) applied to polyploid rat glioma cells induced hyperpolarizations of about 30 s duration, followed by depolarizations lasting 1-2 min. Repeated applications of the peptide resulted in desensitization. The reversal potential of -87 mV at an extracellular K+ concentration of 5 mM and the decrease of membrane resistance during the hyperpolarization indicate that K+ channels were activated by ANH.

Possible relationship between mechanical response, action potential repolarization and Na/Ca exchange in myocardium of normotensive (NWR) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR).

Electrical and mechanical restitution was tested in ventricular preparations of adult NWR and SHR. As in atrial preparations we found a positive correlation between force and action potential duration in the late repolarization phase (APD90), though the effect of test interval prolongation on APD90 was less in papillary muscle compared to atrial preparations. These relationships as well as the differences between NWR and SHR-responses may be interpreted in part by the altered activity of the Na/Ca exchange.

Recovery of ventricular late potentials from body surface using the signal averaging and high resolution ECG techniques.

In 70 patients (3 females and 67 males), aged 16-72 years (mean: 51 +/- 9 years), the low noise ECG was recorded from body surface by the signal averaging and the high resolution beat-to-beat techniques. We found 61 patients were suffering from coronary heart disease, 4 had atypical coronary heart disease (syndrome X), 4 had dilatative cardiomyopathy, and one had the long QT syndrome (Romano-Ward syndrome). We found the following recovery rates for ventricular late potentials within the ST segment with the averaging technique: clearcut in 13/53 patients, doubtful in 16/53 patients, and late potentials absent in 26/53 patients.

Beneficial effects of intracoronary nifedipine during percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

In twelve patients with coronary heart disease and hemodynamically significant coronary artery stenoses (LAD: 11, LAD plus RCA: 1) the effect of intracoronary nifedipine, 0.2 mg, on PTCA-related myocardial ischemia was evaluated. The severity of angina pectoris during balloon inflation was not significantly reduced by nifedipine, whereas the sum of ST segment alterations in Einthoven and Goldberger leads on inflation was significantly decreased by the drug.

[First clinical experience with coronary endoscopy].

In four different groups coronary endoscopy and endoscopy of peripheral vessels was carried out, using two ultrathin fibre endoscopes with a working length of 120 cm and a diameter of 1.4 or 1.8 mm.

[Diastolic micropotentials in high-resolution surface ECG in QT syndrome].

Patients suffering from long QT syndrome are threatened by torsade de pointes tachycardias and sudden arrhythmic cardiac death. An inhomogenic sympathetic innervation of the heart with dominance of the left cervicothoracic sympathetic nerves has been considered to be a major cause of life threatening cardiac arrhythmias. This study presents the electrocardiographic and electrophysiologic results of 7 patients with long QT syndrome.

Successful management of dissection of the aortic root during aortic valve replacement.

We present a case of intraoperative dissection of the aortic root in a patient with non-calcified aortic valve incompetence. This complication led to life-threatening bleeding from the dissection line into the layers of the left ventricle as well as the aortic wall with formation of an increasing subadventitial hematoma. The only possible management was to remove the valve prosthesis and to close the entry site of the dissection when reinserting the valve implant.

The effect of stimulus interval variation on action potential repolarization of atrial muscle preparations in normotensive (NWR) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR).

Action potential (AP) repolarization was tested in atrial preparations of adult NWR and SHR. Prolongation of pause interval interposed in the basic driving frequency of 2 Hz caused a shortening of the early phase and a prolongation of the final phase of repolarization in both NWR and SHR. AP's in SHR exhibited longer durations compared to NWR.

[Cryosurgical treatment of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia following cervical smears and curettage].

65 patients exhibiting colposcopically and cytologically atypical epithelium in the cervix were treated by cryosurgery with liquid nitrogen. 63 of whom were confirmed histologically after surface scraping and curettage of the cervix. The patient then were followed cytologically and colposcopically 8 and 12 weeks after cryosurgery.