Cardiac amyloidosis: Diagnostic features and clinical implications.

Seven patients with cardiac amyloidosis were referred to King Khaled University Hospital. All patients in this study developed congestive heart failure. They had a long duration of illness and thickened ventricular wall with marked abnormalities in the left ventricular filling, and normal systolic function. Diastolic function is suggested as a possible mechanism of congestive cardiac failure in the patients presented.

Cerebral infarction and left ventricular mass: a clinical and echocardiographic study.

One hundred and two stroke patients were studied. Thirty-three (32 per cent) were hypertensive by the WHO criteria. Eighty-three (83 per cent) had cerebral infarction and three patients suffered from spontaneous intracerebral haemorrhage. The mean left ventricular mass was calculated from echocardiographic measurements and compared with that of controls. Neither cases nor controls had valvular or congenital heart disease, or disease processes that may be associated with myocardial infiltration. Mean left ventricular mass of all cases was significantly greater than that of controls (p less than 0.025) and that of the cases over the age of 50 years was also significantly greater than that of controls of the same age (p less than 0.02). The clinically normotensive cases had greater left ventricular mass than the normotensive controls (p less than 0.02). Meanwhile left ventricular mass in patients aged 50 and under was not significantly different from the appropriate control group (p greater than 0.2). These data indicate that the frequency of arterial hypertension among victims of cerebral infarction is greater than may be ascertained clinically particularly in those over 50.

Prolapse of the mitral valve in hyperthyroid patients in Saudi Arabia.

Eighty-two patients (60 females and 22 males) who were under treatment for hyperthyroidism at the King Saud University affiliated hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were evaluated by M-mode and cross-sectional echocardiography for the presence of mitral valve prolapse. Sixty-seven patients (51 females and 16 males) had diffuse toxic goitre while 15 of them (9 females and 6 males) had nodular toxic goitre. The overall frequency of prolapse was 37.8% (31 of 82) and the frequency was similar for both sexes, being 38.3% in females and 36.3% in males. Prolapse was associated with both diffuse toxic goitre (overall frequency 35.8%) and nodular toxic goitre (overall frequency 46.6%); and the highest frequency was in females with nodular toxic goitre (55.5%). Out of the total of 31 patients with prolapse, early systolic and holosystolic prolapse were each present in 12 patients, while mid-to-late systolic prolapse was found in 7 patients. Cross-sectional echocardiography demonstrated prolapse in 16 cases, the M-mode was positive in 5 cases while the two methods confirmed it in 10 patients. The prevalence of prolapse of the mitral valve in otherwise healthy Saudi subjects has previously been found to be 12-15%. This study has confirmed a high frequency of prolapse in hyperthyroid patients and has demonstrated that sex, ethnic or racial origin and type of hyperthyroidism are not determinants of this association.