Vectorcardiographic assessment of acute hypoxia effects in pulmonary hypertension due to chronic bronchitis.

Objective: Vectorcardiography (VCG) QRS loop area is thought to reflect hemodynamic abnormalities in cardiac lesions. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the response of VCG QRS loop area and intrapulmonary flow (PF) to acute hypoxia in patients with chronic bronchitis (CB) and pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Methods: One-hundred and eleven patients (mean age 45.

[Effect of altitude on blood oxygenation during sleep in patients with bronchial asthma].

The aim of our study was to investigate the severity of overnight arterial blood desaturations in patients with asthma at the altitude of 3200 meters above sea level. 12 asthmatics and 12 healthy controls were investigated. Three overnight pulsoximetries were performed in all subjects, one at the lowland and on the 1st and 5th night at the altitude.

Effects of acetazolamide on overnight oxygenation and acute mountain sickness in patients with asthma.

The aim of the study was to assess effects of acetazolamide in prevention of acute mountain sickness (AMS) and on overnight oxygenation, in patients with asthma treated at the altitude of 3,200 m. Sixteen patients with asthma, 6 males and 10 females, mean age 32 yrs, were first investigated at low altitude (760 m). They presented with mild airways obstruction, normal arterial blood gases, and normal oxygenation at night studied by pulse oximetry.

[Diagnosis of right ventricle hypertrophy during pulmonary heart disease in patients with chronic bronchitis].

The comparison of ECG, VCG and ECHO data performed in 78 patients with chronic bronchitis allowed us to distinguish 4 grades of right ventricular hypertrophy (RVH): 1) absence of RVH (QRS loop occupies up to 70% of the area in horizontal plane, right ventricular wall thickness (RVWT) up to 5 mm, ECG changes); 2) slightly marked RVH (QRS-loop area 70-89%, RVWT 6-9 mm, electric axis deviation to the right on ECG, and P.100/R + S greater than 20 in lead II); 3) marked RVH (QRS-loop area 90-100%, RVWT 6-10 mm, right ventricular end-diastolic dimension 2-1-3.0 cm, on ECG--the above changes plus R/SV1 greater than 1.

[The medical disability evaluation of patients with pulmonary hypertension and cor pulmonale].

The purpose of the study was to elaborate criteria for the assessment of the severity of pulmonary hypertension and cor pulmonale in patients with chronic bronchitis and to give rationale for expert medical evaluation of the working capacity of such patients. 94 patients (89 males and 5 females) aged 20 to 60 with chronic bronchitis were examined. Basing on the clinical, x-ray, ECG, VCG and echocardiography data, the gravity of cor pulmonale was assessed by the degree of right ventricular hypertrophy (absent, mild, marked, dramatically marked), changes in the right ventricular echo dimensions and the stage of heart failure, and by the lung vital capacity (in percent of the predicted value).

[Clinico-functional characteristics of pulmonary heart disease developing at high altitude as a result of chronic bronchitis].

It was shown that the high-altitude conditions of the Pamirs and Tien Shan (2800-3600 m above the sea-level) modified the clinicofunctional signs and a course of the cor pulmonale (CP) in chronic bronchitis. CP was detected in the examined patients with chronic bronchitis. As compared to the conditions of foothills (760 m) CP in mountain-dwellers was more noticeable in terms of the signs of pulmonary arterial hypertension, right ventricular hypertrophy developed in them 5 years earlier.