[Knowledge of hypertension among hypertensive patients in general practice, and its relation to achieving therapeutic goals: The Co-HACT study, French West Indies].

Objectives: Appraisal of the agreement between patients' reports and general practitionners' declaration in a French Caribbean population and relationship with blood pressure normalization.

Methods: One hundred French Caribbean practitioners participated in this observational survey: each of them included five essential hypertensives treated for more than three months. BP was considered to be normalized if inferior to 140/90 mmHg.

[Silent Q fever endocarditis. Report of a case].

A murmur of aortic regurgitation was discovered in an asymptomatic patient who had suffered from an acute Coxiella Burnetti infection several months before hand. Transoesophageal echocardiography, serology and direct immunofluorescence of the aortic valve confirmed the diagnosis of Q fever endocarditis. Treatment with Vibramycin and Plaquenil was instituted after aortic valve replacement.

[A case of autochtonous chronic Chagas cardiopathy in French Guiana].

After a brief review of Chagas' disease history in French Guiana, the authors report the first autochthonous case of Chagas' cardiopathy found in this country since 1956. The diagnostic suspected through epidemiological, clinical, electrocardiographical and echocardiographical data, was corroborated by serology and by the discovery of an apical aneurysm at post mortem examination of the heart.

[Long-term treatment of chronic heart failure by an inhibitor of angiotensin converting enzyme].

We studied the hemodynamic, echocardiographic, phonomechanographic and hormonal changes during acute (25 mg) and chronic (6 months--75 to 225 mg/day) treatment of 10 patients with congestive cardiac failure due to cardiomyopathy with dilatation with SQ 14 225 (Captopril). The following changes were observed after the single dose: an increase in cardiac output (p less than 0,001), in stroke volume (p less than 0,01), a reduction in heart rate (p less than 0,01), in peripheral resistance (p less than 0,001) and pulmonary capillary pressure (p less than 0,001). There were no significant changes in end systolic or end diastolic left ventricular internal diameter.