Analysis of ambulatory electrocardiograms in 14 patients who experienced sudden cardiac death during monitoring.

The Holter monitors of 14 patients (out of 58,000 Holter recordings performed between 1978 and 1984) who experienced cardiac arrest and expired during the recording period were analyzed. Tachyarrhythmic arrest patients frequently had coronary heart disease, congestive heart failure, and prolonged QTc intervals. The highest incidence of intermediately frequent premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) occurred between 15 and 6 hours prior to death. The frequency of ventricular couplets increased toward the time of arrest. The hours with greatest frequency of ventricular tachycardia (VT) were found to be the last 5 hours of life. An increasing incidence of ST-segment changes greater than 2 mm was noted throughout all of the risk periods until the third hour prior to arrest when the incidence diminished. Conversely, the incidence of lower amplitude ST-segment changes (usually elevation) increased over the final 6 hours. The mean time of death was 0228 hours +/- 5:20. In conclusion, we observed two patterns of Holter-monitored changes which usually occurred prior to death and may represent predictors of sudden death: (1) an increasing incidence of intermediately frequent isolated PVCs followed by increased ventricular couplets and runs of VT; (2) return of high amplitude ST-segment changes toward baseline. To our knowledge, the temporal relationship of the degree of ST-segment deviation to sudden death and the time of sudden death have not been reported in large studies of Holter-monitored sudden death patients.

Restoration of sexual function and fertility by fetal hypothalamic transplant in impotent aged male rats.

The purpose of this study was to observe whether fetal hypothalamic transplant can restore the neuroendocrine and reproductive function in impotent aged male rats. Eighteen to 20 month old impotent male rats received an anterior hypothalamus removed from a 17-19 day old fetus and placed into the anterior third ventricle. Controls were either without surgery (UC) or grafted with cerebral cortex (CG). Before and 2 to 3 months after transplantation, blood samples were collected from the aged rats for testosterone and LH measurement. Before and one to two months after transplantation, each hypothalamic grafted animal (HG) or control rat was put overnight into a cage which contained four, 10 to 12 week old proestrous female rats. Vaginal smear of each female was monitored early the next morning. Sperm seen in the vaginal smear was regarded as copulation and ejaculation. The test was repeated twice, one week apart, and the higher score represented the sexual function and fertility of the males. Seven of 10 HG males restored their sexual function, impregnated 9 females and fathered 106 pups. None of 7 UC restored their reproductive function and only one of 4 CG males impregnated one female which delivered 6 pups. Serum testosterone, LH and pituitary LH in the HG rats, which showed restoration of reproductive function, were significantly higher than those of the controls (UC and CG). These results indicate that the fetal hypothalamic grafts can survive and develop in the brain of impotent aged male rats and restore neuroendorince and reproductive function in senescent rats.

Development of Na+-K+-ATPase in neonatal rat brain synaptosomes after perinatal protein malnutrition.

Four protein dietary groups of rats were used in this study, namely: 27% casein diet fed throughout gestation and lactation (group C-C); 27% gestation, 10% lactation (group C-D); 10% gestation, 27% lactation (group D-C); 10% throughout gestation and lactation (group D-D). Mean body weight of group D-D at warning was 19 g compared with 59 g for group C-C. The specific activity of Na+-K+-ATPase in isolated synaptosomes from cerebral and cerebellar tissues increases throughout the lactation period. At 1 and 7 days of age no differences in Na+-K+-ATPase activity are noted in the brain regions of Groups C-C and D-D. At 14 and 21 days, however, the specific Na+-K+-ATPase activity was significantly reduced in isolated synaptosomes from both brain regions of the protein-deprived group. ATPase activity in cerebellar synaptosomes from dietary exchange groups (C-D and D-C) developed to the same extent as that of the control group (C-C) after 21 days of lactation. ATPase activity in the cerebral synaptosomes of the dietary exchange group (C-D) did not develop to the same extent as that in the control group (C-C) and the other dietary exchange group (D-C).