Captopril or nifedipine? Comparison of rest and exercise acute effects and long-term therapy in chronic isolated asymptomatic moderate to severe aortic regurgitation.

UNLABELLED: The effects of both single and long-term oral captopril or nifedipine treatment on cardiac parameters at rest and during exercise in patients with moderate to severe aortic regurgitation was investigated. METHODS: Thirty-one asymptomatic patients with chronic, isolated, previously untreated, moderate to severe aortic regurgitation (AR) of mean grade 3.1 +/- 0.6, had left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD) 64 +/- 5 mm, left ventricular end-systolic diameter (LVESD) 41 +/- 5 mm, ejection fraction (EF) 66 +/- 6% and fractional shortening (FS) 37 +/- 5% measured by echo-Doppler. Bedside Swan-Ganz measurements at rest and at peak exercise (75 W) were conducted before (baseline) and at 75-90 min after oral administration of 20 mg nifedipine. Repeat testing was performed 24 h later, at 75-90 min after oral administration of 25 mg captopril. RESULTS: At rest, nifedipine significantly reduced systemic vascular resistance (SVR) compared with baseline (704 +/- 152 versus 880 +/- 216 dynes.s.cm-5; p < 0.0001) and captopril treatment (800 +/- 176 dynes.s.cm-5; p < 0.0001). Despite significant improvement of effective left ventricular (LV) stroke volume (LVSVef) after both nifedipine and captopril over baseline (103 +/- 20 ml), LVSVef did not differ between nifedipine and captopril (110 +/- 17 versus 110 +/- 22 ml; NS). Nifedipine significantly increased effective cardiac output (COef) from baseline (6.7 +/- 1.3 l/min) to 8.2 +/- 1.5 l/min; p < 0.0001, but this was due to an increase in heart rate (HR) (66 +/- 10 versus 75 +/- 1 beats/min; p < 0.0001). In contrast, captopril affected neither COef nor HR. In addition, captopril reduced pulmonary capillary wedge pressure (PCWP) more than nifedipine (8.7 +/- 2.5 versus 11 +/- 2.9 mmHg; p < 0.0001). At exercise, both drugs caused similar reductions in blood pressure and systemic vascular resistance (SVR). By comparison with exercise baseline, LVSVef was increased by captopril (139 +/- 24 versus 147 +/- 27 ml; p < 0.01) but was unchanged after nifedipine. Compared with baseline, nifedipine increased COef (from 14.4 +/- 2.0 to 15.5 +/- 2.1 l/min; p < 0.0001) due to a significantly higher HR, while COef and HR were unchanged after captopril. A smaller increase in PCWP was also seen after captopril than nifedipine and baseline (both p < 0.0001). After long-term therapy (33 +/- 12; range: 12 to 53 months) with captopril (75 mg/day, n = 13) or nifedipine (40 mg/day; n = 12) there was no change in LVESD, and in left ventricular EF and FS in either groups. None of the patients became symptomatic. Compared with baseline, captopril significantly reduced AR grade by 0.9 +/- 0.6 (p < 0.01), but not significantly so versus nifedipine. LVEDD was reduced in captopril patients by 4.0 +/- 2.6 mm (p < 0.0002), but not significantly so in nifedipine patients. LVEDD was normalized in five captopril patients, and in four treated with nifedipine. CONCLUSIONS: Single captopril treatment caused a greater hemodynamic improvement than nifedipine, notably during exercise; these findings were confirmed by long-term therapy with both drugs. Therefore, captopril may delay the development of left ventricular dysfunction and thus the time for corrective surgery.

Determining the current roles of physical and occupational therapists in burn care.

The team approach has enjoyed great success in the care of patients with burns, and it has been shown to decrease morbidity and mortality in these cases. Although the concept of the team approach is well-defined, the delineation of roles within this approach remains unclear. This study was designed to better explain the roles of physical therapists (PTs) and occupational therapists (OTs) in burn care. With the use of a questionnaire, PT and OT responsibilities were reviewed. The results showed that OTs perform the majority of activities of daily living training, PTs perform the majority of functional mobility training, both professions are involved in scar management, and neither profession has significant responsibility for care of the burn wound itself. Role delineation occurs to help avoid role confusion and the duplication of services. The title burn therapist offers an example of unclear role definition when a physical therapy assistant uses that title to identify himself or herself. Communication is critical to define these roles within individual burn centers.

[A case of dilated cardiomyopathy caused by myocardial microinfarcts in the course of polycythemia vera]. / Przypadek kardiomiopatii rozstrzeniowej spowodowanej mikrozawalami serca w przebiegu czerwienicy parawdziwej.

This article presents a case of 45-year-old man with polycythemia vera non diagnosed before. The first symptom of polycythemia vera was acute congestive heart failure which suggested diagnosis of myocarditis. Polycythemia vera was confirmed by raised hematocrit, significantly increased platelet count, normal oxygen saturation, score for leukocyte alkaline phosphatase (LAP)-130 and splemomegaly. Echocardiography revealed left ventricular histological. Coronary arteriography showed normal coronary arteries. Finding of histological examination of the endomyocardial biopsy were described as necrosis of myocytes and abnormal blood flow in very small coronary vessels. It was the main reason of dilated cardiomyopathy caused by microinfarcts in polycythemia vera. Hematological parameters were reduced to normal levels after hydroxyurea treatment. Digitalis and ACE-inhibitor therapy quickly improved cardiovascular status from III to II NYHA class.

[Captopril-induced attacks of bronchial asthma]. / Napad astmy oskrzelowej wywolany kaptoprylem.

There was presented the case of a bronchial asthma attack in 29 years old patient with congestive heart failure and a history of atopic bronchial asthma in 30th minute after 12.5 mg of captopril administration.