ABSTRACT
From January 1986 through December 1990, we used pulsed Doppler echocardiography to evaluate left ventricular diastolic function in 43 patients with an ostium secundum atrial septal defect. The study population included 27 females and 16 males, whose ages ranged from 6 to 58 years (mean, 26 years). The patients were grouped according to degree of pulmonary hemodynamic impairment: patients in Group 1 (n = 6) had severe pulmonary hypertension, those in Group 2 (n = 10) had mild-to-moderate pulmonary hypertension, and those in Group 3 (n = 27) had no pulmonary hypertension. For comparison, we also evaluated 30 healthy individuals. All control subjects had a normal left ventricular filling profile. Of the 43 study patients, 8 (19%) showed Doppler echocardiographic signs of impaired left ventricular relaxation, including a prolonged left ventricular isovolumic relaxation time, decreased peak left ventricular diastolic inflow velocity, and a prolonged mean deceleration time of early diastolic flow velocity. Of these 8 patients, 5 were from Group 1, 1 was from Group 2, and 2 were from Group 3. A positive correlation (r = 0.66; standard error of the estimate = 0.32) was found between the late-to-early left ventricular diastolic inflow velocity ratio and the pulmonary-to-systemic vascular resistance ratio. Our results showed impaired left ventricular relaxation in 8 (19%) of patients with atrial septal defect; 5 of these patients had severe pulmonary hypertension. We therefore conclude that left ventricular diastolic dysfunction is closely related to severe pulmonary hypertension.
ABSTRACT
Presence of neutralizing antibodies to Coxsackie B viruses (CBV) 1-5 were examined in 2885 human sera by the neutralization test. The most frequently detected antibodies were to B4 viruses (in 1495 sera--51.82%) and to B3 (1371--47.52%). Antibodies to other serotypes were found in lower percentage: to B1 in 387 samples (13-41%), to B2 in 404 sera (14%) and in B5 in 332 sera (11.5%). Presence of neutralizing antibodies to human CBV in heart diseases were also analysed in 67 serum pairs. In this group of examinees the antibody titer dynamics was found in 41.79% sera.
