Cardiac relaxation is impaired in many cardiac disorders and is the subject of extensive investigation. Though measurement of isovolumic relaxation time ought to prove a simple means of quantifying such abnormalities in clinical practice, the problem of defining the timing of mitral valve opening at the onset of ventricular filling has been a difficulty. previous studies have used the 'O' point of the apexcardiogram, but more recently it has been shown that this may be open to considerable error. It was the purpose of the present study to determine the duration of true isovolumic relaxation and the factors influencing its duration, and to evaluate its use as a simple noninvasive measurement of cardiac dynamics in terms of the present approach. True isovolumic relaxation time (IRT) was measured noninvasively from the onset of the aortic component of the second heart sound to the onset of rapid opening of the mitral leaflets from simultaneous recording of echocardiogram, phonocardiogram, electrocardiogram and carotid tracing in 60 normal subjects, 30 male and 30 female and in 50 with hypertension, 28 male and 22 female ranging in age from 20 to 45 years. 1. The duration of IRT was 53.6+/-9.9 msec in normal subjects with no relation to sex. 2. IRT was related to heart rate, systemic blood pressure, and systolic and diastolic time intervals. 1) IRT tended to decrease with increasing heart rate and a regression equation for predicting it in relation to heart rate was 'IRT(msec)=88.97-0.466xH.R.(beats/min)' (P<0.01). 2) IRT tended to increase with increasing systemic blood pressure and a regression equation for predicting it in relation to aortic closing pressure was 'IRT(msec)=5.09+0.459xaortic closing pressure(mmHg)' (P<0.01). IRT was prolonged in patient with hypertension. 3) IRT was in close relation to left ventricular contraction indices such as preejection period(PEP), isovolumic contraction time and preejection period/left ventricular ejection time ratio. 4) There was no relation between IRT and left ventricular pump performance indices such as stroke volume, ejection fraction, fractional shortening and left ventricular dimension. 5) There was strong association between IRT and diastolic time intervals. Authors were impressed through this study that IRT is a useful measurement of left ventricular dynamics in early diastole.
Blood Pressure ; Diastole ; Electrocardiography ; Female ; Heart Rate ; Heart Sounds ; Humans ; Hypertension ; Male ; Mitral Valve ; Relaxation* ; Stroke Volume

We evaluate the effects of diltiazem in 19 patients with ischemic heart disease (15 patients) of classical anginal pectoris & 4 patients of variant angina) by means of clinical status & electrocardiographic changes and obtain the results as follows: 1. The pulse rate & blood pressure were decreased by diltiazem slightly but these decreases were not significant in statistical meaning. 2. Diltiazem administration of 4 weeks duration normalized EKG completely in 4 patients & partially in 3 patients among the 13 patients who showed abnormal resting EKG initially. 3. All 19 patients who received diltiazem showed clinical improvement; 9 patients had excellent responses, 7 patients good responses & 3 patients fair responses. 4. Diltiazem had side effects in 3 patients, drowsiness, mild euphoria & possibly tolerance respectively in each patients.
Angina Pectoris* ; Blood Pressure ; Diltiazem ; Electrocardiography ; Euphoria ; Heart Rate ; Humans ; Myocardial Ischemia ; Sleep Stages

No abstract available.
HIV* ; Humans*

An open trial was carried out to investigate the efficacy and tolerance of isosorbide 5-mononitrate(Elantan(R)) in 30 patients diagnosed as angina pectoris at Pusan national university hospital. Drugs were given 20mg two times daily for 2 to 3 weeks and the results were assessed in terms of effects on anginal pain and untoward side effects experienced during administration of medication. Treament resulted in an overall improvement in 25 patients(83.4%), complete abolition of anginal attacks in 17 patients(56.7%) and reduction in frequency of attacks in 8 patients(26.7%). So called "Nitrated headache" was observed in 5 patients(16.6%) but improved with proceeding of administration in 3 patients. This trial indicates that isosorbide 5-mononitrate should be efficacious as well as tolerated in patients with coronary heart disease.
Angina Pectoris* ; Busan ; Coronary Disease ; Humans ; Isosorbide*

No abstract available.

BACKGROUND: There has been reports which suggest that the morphologic feature of ventricular premature complex(VPC) might reflect the cardiac state. METHODS: To test this, we studied retrospectively the association between the morphologic feature of VPC(shape and duration) and cardiac state(structural and functional) by analysing the records of ECG(179 cases) obtained from reviewing echocardiogram performed in our hospital from 1988 to early 1991. Group 1(n=84) had VPC-QRS complexes with either smooth and uniterruped contour or narrow(<0.04 sec) notching and group 2(n=95) demonstrated VPC with broad(> or =0.04 sec) notching or shelves. Without taking into account of either the presence of the type of the underlying cardiac disease and other constitutional disease state, we classified the type of VPC on ECG according to the above criteria and analysed its simple association with cardiac size and functional state on echocardiogram. RESULTS: In group 1, 68 of 84 cases with a VPC had no notching. In group 2, the VPC-QRS duration was greater than group 1(0.154+/-0.022 vs 0.141+/-0.011 sec(mean+/-S.D.), p=0.0001).Left ventricular end-diastolic diameter(LVED) and ejection fraction(EF) showed a significant difference between the two groups(5.12+/-0.64 vs 5.72+/-0.95cm, p=0.0003 and 65.89+/-10.84 vs 60.82+/-15.5%, p=0.012 respectively). In group 2, 50 of 95 cases(53%) showed ejection fraction less than 64%. By defining left ventricular structural dilatation and functional impairment on echocardiogram as LEVD greater than 5.5cm and EF less than 64% respectively, the sensitivity and specificity of VPC morphology was 60% and 74% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that a broadly(> or =0.04 sec) notched VPC of long duration(> or =0.15 sec) is a simple and reliable 12-lead ECG marker for an abnormal structural and functional state of the heart(dilatation and hypokinetic left ventricle), irrespective to underlying cardiac disease, while a VPC with smooth contour or narrow(<0.04 sec) notching with short duration(<0.15 sec) reflects a normal sized heart with normal systolic function.
Dilatation ; Electrocardiography ; Heart ; Heart Diseases ; Retrospective Studies ; Sensitivity and Specificity

An open clinical trial was performed to test the efficacy and side effects of Pravastatin(Mevlotin(R)), HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, administering 5mg twice daily for 12weeks in 30 patients of hypercholesterolemia in out patient clinics, Pusan National University Hospital. The total cholesterol, triglyceride and HDL-cholesterol were measured with enzyme methods and LDL-cholesterol was calculated indirectly by Friedewald formula. The result obtained were as follows: 1) The degree of change at the end points compared with baseline pretreatment levels were 26.1% fall in serum total cholesterol.36.6% fall in LDL-cholesterol, 20.8% fall in triglyceride and 14, 6% rise in HDL-cholesterol. And the rate of improvement more than moderate degree were 90.0% in total cholesterol(the fall of 10% or more), 53.3% in triglyceride (the fall 20% or more) and 33.3% in HDL-cholesterol(the rise of 7mg% or more). 2) The total cholesterol/HDL-cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratios were decreased significantly from 6, 4+/-0.7 to 4.2+/-0.5(34.4%) and from 4.5+/-0.7 to 2.5 +/-0.4(44.4%) respectively. 3) The greatest fall in serum total cholesterol and LDL-cholesterol were observed in 2 weeks after administrating drug and thereafter fell gradually and maintained until 12 weeks of endpoint, but HDL-cholesterol showed significant rise from the 4 weeks of administration. On the other hand triglyceride showed remarkable fall in the measured values from the 4 weeks but statistical significance was observed only in 10 and 12 weeks after administration owing to wide individual variation of values. 4) There observed the tendency that the higher the initial pretreatment levels the greater the degree of fall in total cholesterol and triglyceride. 5) Neither side effects nor abnormal laboratory findings were shown during the period of observation. The results suggest that Pravastatin will be a useful and safe drug in the treatment of hyperlipidemia.
Busan ; Cholesterol ; Hand ; Humans ; Hypercholesterolemia* ; Hyperlipidemias ; Oxidoreductases ; Pravastatin ; Triglycerides

To examine AZT resistance of HIV-1 isolates from AZT treated or untreated Korean, several biological characteristics such as syncytium formation, HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activity and the p24 antigen production in MT-2 cells infected with 4 HRT_1 isolates were determined. As controls, we tested HIV-1 HTLV-IIIB and pre-drug isolate as AZT susceptible strains, in addition to HIV-1 RTMC/MT-2 and post-drug isolate as AZT resistant strains. When the inoculum size of HIV-1 was 300 TCID50well and 100 TCID50/well, the AZT susceptibility of AZT untreated HIV-1 isolates 8806 and 9571 were similar to that of HIV-1 HTLV-IIIB and AZT-susceptible HIV-1 strains. When we evaluated AZT resistance of isolates HRs-1 8812 and 9113 treated with AZT for 36 months by observation of syncytium formation, HIV-1 8812 showed resistance simillar to that of HIV-1 RTMC/MT-2 strain forming syncytium up to AZT 1microgram/ml, and HIV-1 9113 showed resistance identical with that of AZT-resistant HIV-1 strain which formed syncytium up to AZT 10 microgram/ml. Especially, when we evaluated AZT resistance by HIV-1 reverse transcriptase activty and the p24 antigen production, HIV-1 isolates 8812 and 9113 showed much higher resistance (>10 - 200 fold) compared with HN-1 RTMC/MT-2 and AZT-resistant HIV-1 strain.
Giant Cells ; HIV-1* ; Korea* ; Population Characteristics ; RNA-Directed DNA Polymerase ; Zidovudine*

Fournier described five patients with gangrene of male external genitalia in 1883 and emphasized three characteristics: (1) abrupt onset in young healthy male, (2) rapid progression to gangrene,(3) absence of discernible cause. But more recent reports described genital gangrene as occurring in any age group and 4 patients in our cases, the mean age was 46 years with an age range of 31 to 59 years. Predisposing causes were as follows: case 1. prostatic calculi, Buerger's disease, case 2, perianal abscess, case 3, diabetes mellitus, case 4, tuberculous spondylitis accompanied by paraplegia and bed sores, liver cirrhosis. The duration of symptoms prior to the development of gangrene varied between 4 to 10 days. The cultured organisms were as follows : case 1. Alpha-hemolytic streptococcus, case 2. E. coli, Alpha-hemolytic streptococcus case 3. Alpha-hemolytic streptococcus, case 4, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, proteus species. Reconstructive surgery of defected scrotum was performed postoperative 8 to 41 days (mean 28.7) and total admission period was 25 to 83 days (mean 46 days).
Abscess ; Calculi ; Diabetes Mellitus ; Fournier Gangrene* ; Gangrene ; Genitalia ; Humans ; Liver Cirrhosis ; Male ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis ; Paraplegia ; Pressure Ulcer ; Proteus ; Scrotum ; Spondylitis ; Streptococcus ; Thromboangiitis Obliterans

No abstract available.
Humans