[Prospective study of the outcome of rheoplethysmographic parameters after deep venous thrombosis of the lower extremities. Role in the decision to discontinue anticoagulants].

Forty-eight patients (25 M, 23 F) age range 25 to 83 years were admitted for treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) of lower limbs confirmed by phlebocavography. Lesions were sural in 6 cases (Gr. 1), subcrural in 28 (Gr.

[Is it necessary to discontinue captopril before heart surgery?].

Interaction between kininase II and anaesthesia is not well described. Twenty two patients treated by kininase II for congestive heart failure are studied during anaesthesia for cardiovascular surgery. A first group of seventeen homogeneous hemodynamic data are reported.

[New morphine-type analgesics in anesthesia].

Since the synthesis of Fentanyl in 1961, many narcotics have appeared which are not yet available in France. Among agonists, all are Fentanyl derivates but are different by either more powerful (sufentanyl, lofentanyl), and longer-acting effects (lofentanyl), or less powerful and shorter-acting effects (alfentanyl). All would have a greater security index and minimal cardiovascular side effects.

[Hemodynamic testing at rest and during exertion after mitral valve replacement with a St. Jude Medical prosthesis].

177 mitral valve replacements with the St Jude Medical prosthesis (SJM) were carried out from March 1979 to December 1983. 45 of these patients (22 men and 23 women) underwent right heart catheterisation 6 or 8 months after surgery. These patients were operated for pure mitral stenosis in 24 cases, mitral regurgitation in 10 cases and mixed mitral disease in 24 cases.

[Treatment of low cardiac output following extracorporeal circulation with captopril].

Seven patients in low-output cardiac failure, resistant to conventional vasodilators and inotropic agents, following surgery with extra-corporeal circulation were given oral captopril, an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor. The effects of captopril on haemodynamic and renal function were studied after 2, 6, 12 and 24 hours of treatment. After two hours, there was a mean reduction in systemic arterial resistance of 29%, in pulmonary arterial resistance of 18% and in pulmonary wedge pressure of 15%.

[Anesthetic induction with Althesin or diazepam in patients undergoing an aortocoronary bypass].

The haemodynamic effects of induction of anaesthesia with diazepam (group D) and Althesin (group A) were studied in 25 coronary patients under betablockers with good myocardial function. Haemodynamic variables monitored were vascular pressures, cardiac output and systolic time intervals. The effects of both drugs were observed when used alone (time I) and in combination with fentanyl, pancuronium and nitrous oxide (time II).

[Hemodynamic data during muscular exercise after myocardial infarction. Correlations with coronaro-ventriculographic data].

Forty six patients aged 25 to 67 years (average : 52 years) underwent measurement of pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP), systemic pressure and cardiac output (Fick) at rest and during exercise in the recumbent position 12 +/- 3 weeks after uncomplicated myocardial infarction; the results were then compared with those of coronary angiography and right anterior oblique monoplane left ventriculography. The site of infarction was anterior in 18 cases and postero-diaphragmatic in 28 cases; it was non-transmural in 4 cases. Twenty patients (43%) had multivessel disease; this was equally common in anterior and inferior wall infarction.

[Prevention of gas microemboli during cardiac surgery. Numerical control of cardiac cavity purging by an ultrasonic detector].

Despite all precautions taken by cardiac surgeons to eliminate air remaining in the cardiac cavities and pulmonary veins at the end of cardiopulmonary bypass, many micro bubbles probably remain and pass into the systemic circulation with a risk of deteriorations of cerebral or myocardial function. Over the last four years we have used ultrasound to try to prevent the risk of preoperative gas microemboli: the machine is equipped with a detector (a quartz oscillator coupled to a piezoelectric transducer emitting a continuous beam of ultrasound at a frequency of 5 Mhz) which allows the following variables to be determined: the time interval from the onset of detection, the total quantity of bubbles (arbitrary units) in the examined regions, the quantity of bubbles detected over a given time interval which can be adjusted from 15 to 120 seconds. The passage of bubbles is also indicated by light and sound alarms.

[Impending carotid and coronary artery obstruction. Operative procedure and monitoring].

A 70 year old woman was admitted to the intensive care unit for unstable angina with haemodynamic repercussions which led to a right hemiparesis because of a left carotid stenosis. The worsening neurological deficit required an immediate endarterectomy. Cardiovascular monitoring, particularly during anaesthetic induction and carotid clamping, included a Swan-Ganz catheter which provided continuous control of myocardial damage.

Chronic pulmonary thromboembolism.

Recurrent pulmonary embolism sometimes (3% of hospital autopsies) determines a progressive obstruction of the pulmonary vascular bed, which in turn causes pulmonary arterial hypertension and in time right ventricular hypertrophy and failure. The first stages of this process are characterized by slight pulmonary arterial hypertension at rest and by few and deceiving symptoms which make the diagnosis very difficult. Regarding anatomy, in most cases recurrent thromboembolism obstructs one of the main branches of the pulmonary artery.

Prediction of pulmonary hypertension from postural changes of pulmonary transfer factor.

The differences between lung transfer factor values measured in supine and standing positions were correlated with pulmonary artery pressures in 61 patients with chronic obstructive lung disease and in 34 patients with recurrent pulmonary embolism. No significant correlation was found. The postural change of transfer factor cannot be used as a noninvasive indicator of pulmonary artery pressure in these diseases.

[Acute hemodynamic effects of molsidomine in man].

Molsidomine was administered sub-lingually to two groups of five patients. One group had normal left ventricular function and the other had abnormal left ventricular function. Molsidomine was found to induce a decrease in the left ventricular filling pressure and volume and an increase in ventricular distensibility.

Haemodynamic diversity and plasma renin activity in labile arterial hypertension.

Haemodynamic studies were made on 31 patients with labile hypertension at rest and during exercise. Plasma renin activity (PRA) was measured in 8 of them. Five haemodynamic types could be recognised and they could be arranged into two groups.

[Labile arterial hypertension. Hemodynamic study with measurement of renin activity].

Plasma renin activity (PRA) was increased and highly sensitive to stimulation in eight cases of labile hypertension (HT), which were also studied haemodynamically. This increase in PRA would appear to result from neuro-adrenergic hyperactivity. The haemodynamic were characterised by a diversity which may be explained on the basis of differentiated sympathetic hyperactivity: exclusive or predominant beta-adrenergic activity causing a hyperkinetic cardiac state with moderate HT adapted to the increased cardiac output; A simultaneous alpha- and beta-adrenergic activity resulting in cardiac hyperkinesis with a relative or potential increase in peripheral resistance; isolated or predominant alpha-adrenergic hyperactivity causing a potential increase in peripheral resistance revealed or increased by effort, in the presence of a normal cardiac output.