Screening electrocardiograms in psychiatric research: implications for physicians and healthy volunteers.

AIMS: While there is controversy regarding utility of screening electrocardiograms (ECGs) in competitive athletes and children exposed to psychostimulants, there is no data on the use of screening ECGs in psychiatric research. We aimed to examine the prevalence and clinical significance of ECG abnormalities and their impact on eligibility for studies. METHODS: We analysed 500 consecutive ECG reports from physically healthy volunteers who had a negative cardiac history, normal cardiovascular examination and no other significant medical illnesses. For the purpose of this report, all ECGs were over-read by one cardiologist. RESULTS: The mean age of our cohort was 28.3 ± 8.0 years. A total of 112 (22.4%) ECGs were reported as abnormal (14.2%) or borderline (8.2%). These abnormalities were considered clinically insignificant in all but eight subjects (1.6%) who underwent evaluation with an echocardiogram. All echocardiograms were normal. No subject was excluded from studies. After the over-reading, no abnormalities or isolated bradycardia were present in 37 of 112 (33%) ECGs that were initially reported as abnormal or borderline, while minor abnormalities were found in 7 of 204 (3.4%) ECGs that were reported as normal. CONCLUSIONS: Although screening ECGs did not detect significant cardiac pathology or affect eligibility for our studies, over 20% of subjects were labelled as having an abnormal or borderline ECG which was incorrect in one-third of cases. Strategies to minimise unintended consequences of screening are discussed.

The role of primary tumour resection in patients with stage IV colorectal cancer.

OBJECTIVE: The management of stage IV colorectal cancer is controversial. Resection of the primary tumour to prevent obstruction, bleeding or perforation is the traditional approach, although survival benefit is undetermined. Management consisting of diverting ostomy, enteric bypass, laser recanalization or endoscopic stenting is an alternative to radical resection. The purpose of this study was to determine the role of resection of the primary tumour in patients with stage IV colorectal cancer, with specific attention paid to survival benefit and safety. METHOD: This was a retrospective review of all stage IV colon and rectal cancer patients in our tumour registry between 1991 and 2002. Data collected included patient demographics, presenting symptoms, detail from the hospital course including diagnostic data and operative management, complications and survival time (days). Survival analysis was performed to assess the effect of primary tumour resection on long-term survival. RESULTS: 109 patients were studied. Sixty-two (57%) patients (group I) underwent resection of the primary tumour, whereas 47 (43%) patients (group II) were managed without resection. Median survival times for groups I and II were 375 (IQR: 179-759) and 138 (IQR: 35-262) days respectively (P < 0.0001). After controlling for age, sex, tumour location and level of liver involvement as well as liver function, patients who underwent resection still survived longer (HR = 0.34, 95% CI: 0.21-0.55). CONCLUSION: Palliative resection of the primary tumour plays an essential role in the management of stage IV colorectal cancer. Resection can offer increased survival and is indicated in certain patients with incurable disease. Limited metastatic tumour burden of the liver was associated with better survival in such patients.

[Salutogenesis and sexual medicine]. / Salutogenese und Sexualmedizin.

Salutogenesis means a paradigmatic change in medicine. While pathogenesis restricts itself to finding out what makes a man ill, salutogenesis tries to find out what keeps him or her healthy. The human being is seen as a biological, psychological, and social creature. There are many studies which show the importance of social relationships and the satisfaction of basic psychosocial needs as protection against psychological or psychosomatic disorders. The psychosocial basic needs for acceptance, intimacy, and security can be best fulfilled by sexual communication with the partner. Therefore a salutogenic approach to sexual medicine focuses mainly on the fulfillment of these needs and not only on the treatment of a sexual dysfunction. Unnecessarily frustrating experiences can thus be avoided, especially when the sexual possibilities of one or both partners are restricted by an illness or its medical treatment. A case report shows how sexual communication and sex therapy can help to cope with a tumor disease.

[Influence of neurological diseases on partnership and sexuality. Particularly in view of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease]. / Der Einfluss neurologischer Erkrankungen auf Partnerschaft und Sexualität. Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Multiplen Sklerose und des Morbus Parkinson.

A great number of neurological diseases exert a direct impact on sexuality, due to lesions in the central and peripheral nervous system and due to different neurological symptoms and their treatment (for example medication). The psychosocial basic needs for acceptance, intimacy, and security, which can be best fulfilled by sexual communication, attain essential importance in the situation of disease-induced helplessness. This implies that not only the experience of sexual pleasure and the functioning of reproduction can be influenced, but the partnership, too. A holistic treatment approach always requires the consideration of partnership aspects.

[Sex therapy for male sexual dysfunction]. / Sexualtherapie bei sexuellen Funktionsstörungen des Mannes.

A high prevalence and incidence of sexual dysfunctions as well as the availability of orally effective medications cause a rising interest in professional help. In diagnosing and treating sexual disorders, a holistic, biopsychosocial understanding of sexuality and a thorough analysis of the specific needs of the couple are of the utmost importance. Furthermore, the typical physician-patient relationship has to be transformed into a physician-couple relationship wherever possible. Sex therapy, then, focuses on the universal psychosocial fundamental needs and their relevance for the complaints of the couple. In this way the main focus of attention is shifted from the sexual dysfunction to the communicative meaning of sexuality within the relationship and to the quality of the partnership as a whole. Thus the sexual problem is put into a new perspective and sexual functions are relieved from the pressure of performance anxiety. Simultaneously intimacy and mutual satisfaction are promoted. The possibility of obtaining an additional qualification in sexual medicine (since 1997 in postgraduate, curricular trainings) is offering new opportunities for urologists to integrate aspects of sexual medicine into their clinical practice and thus to propose a more extensive form of therapy to their patients. This paper reflects the process of this integration, illustrating it with respective case reports; it stresses the necessity of a holistic approach to the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, also in regard to the economic advantages of a biopsychosocially oriented sex therapy.

[Disease- and treatment related sexual disorders after radical prostatectomy. A biopsychosocial consideration]. / Krankheits- und behandlungsbedingte Sexualstörungen nach radikaler Prostatektomie. Eine biopsychosoziale Betrachtung.

Between 20% and 25% of the patients seeing a doctor have sexual problems. These have various causes: somatopsychological, psychosomatic, social-somatic and psychological factors can play an important role. For an effective therapy, a biopsychosocial understanding of the development of these diseases is necessary. Tumor-patients belong to a special group who frequently develop sexual problems. There are many patients with prostate cancer who, after a radical prostatectomy, suffer from erectile dysfunction. As sexuality always has a social dimension, there is no sexual dysfunction which can be seen as separate from partnership and social environment. Hence the couple is the patient, not the malfunctioning penis. Sexual rehabilitation's main aim is therefore not the repair the malfunctioning organ but rather the improvement of the quality of the sexual relationship beyond penetration.

Relation between serum nifedipine concentration and hemodynamic effects in nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

The relation between nifedipine concentration and hemodynamic effects after sublingual administration of 10 or 20 mg was examined in 13 patients with nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HC). Serum nifedipine concentrations were determined by gas chromatography and were not related to dose. Peripheral vascular resistance decreased as a function of nifedipine concentration (r = -0.63, p less than 0.001); this was associated with a concentration-related increase in heart rate (r = 0.56, p less than 0.001) and in cardiac index (r = 0.50, p less than 0.001). However, evidence for a pure vasodilator effect of nifedipine was inconsistent, in that the change in stroke volume index with nifedipine was not significant. Although stroke volume index increased at nifedipine concentrations between 60 and 120 ng/ml (38 +/- 6 to 42 +/- 4 ml/m2, p less than 0.01), it decreased at concentrations greater than 120 ng/ml (40 +/- 3 to 38 +/- 4 ml/m2, p less than 0.01). Moreover, pulmonary artery wedge pressure increased at nifedipine concentrations greater than 120 ng/ml (11 +/- 2 to 16 +/- 4 mm Hg, p less than 0.001), suggesting either depressed left ventricular (LV) systolic function or reduced LV filling. To investigate these possible mechanisms, LV systolic and diastolic function was studied during catheterization with a nonimaging scintillation probe in 6 of the 13 patients. In these subjects, heart rate was held constant by atrial pacing.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Inducible polymorphic ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation in a subgroup of patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy at high risk for sudden death.

This investigation was undertaken to elucidate the underlying electrophysiologic substrate in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and to identify possible predictors of sudden death in this patient population. Programmed stimulation was performed in 18 patients aged 14 to 64 years (mean 36) believed to be at high risk for sudden death on the basis of prior cardiac arrest or syncope, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia on Holter ambulatory electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring or a family history of frequent sudden death. Polymorphic ventricular tachycardia that deteriorated to ventricular fibrillation was reproducibly induced in 8 (44%) of the 18 patients (Group A). This rhythm was induced in all three patients with a history of cardiac arrest. No sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia was induced. Group B comprised the 10 patients in whom a sustained arrhythmia could not be reproducibly initiated. The electrophysiologic substrate was distinctly different in patients with, than in those without, inducible sustained arrhythmia. The refractory period was shorter at the right ventricular outflow tract (232 +/- 22 ms) compared with the apex (264 +/- 12 ms) in Group A (p less than 0.005) whereas there was no difference in Group B (271 +/- 25 ms versus 271 +/- 13 ms). The local ventricular electrogram of most patients in both groups was prolonged and markedly multiphasic. However, 5 of the 8 Group A patients exhibited a double electrogram (V-V') with premature stimulation compared with 1 of the 10 patients in Group B (p less than 0.02). A positive R wave in lead aVR of the scalar ECG and poor R wave progression in the precordial leads were more common in Group A than in Group B (p less than 0.001 and p less than 0.001, respectively). The reason for the distinctly different electrophysiologic substrate and the high prevalence of inducible polymorphic arrhythmia is unclear. It may relate to the underlying myocardial architecture in these patients, characterized by myocardial cellular disarray and fibrosis.

Differences in coronary flow and myocardial metabolism at rest and during pacing between patients with obstructive and patients with nonobstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Fifty patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy underwent invasive study of coronary and myocardial hemodynamics in the basal state and during the stress of pacing. The 23 patients with basal obstruction (average left ventricular outflow gradient, 77 +/- 33 mm Hg; left ventricular systolic pressure, 196 +/- 33 mm Hg, mean +/- 1 SD) had significantly lower coronary resistance (0.85 +/- 0.18 versus 1.32 +/- 0.44 mm Hg X min/ml, p less than 0.001) and higher basal coronary flow (106 +/- 20 versus 80 +/- 25 ml/min, p less than 0.001) in the anterior left ventricle, associated with higher regional myocardial oxygen consumption (12.4 +/- 3.6 versus 8.9 +/- 3.3 ml oxygen/min, p less than 0.001) compared with the 27 patients without obstruction (mean left ventricular systolic pressure 134 +/- 18 mm Hg, p less than 0.001). Myocardial oxygen consumption and coronary blood flow were also significantly higher at paced heart rates of 100 and 130 beats/min (the anginal threshold for 41 of the 50 patients) in patients with obstruction compared with those without. In patients with obstruction, transmural coronary flow reserve was exhausted at a heart rate of 130 beats/min; higher heart rates resulted in more severe metabolic evidence of ischemia with all patients experiencing chest pain, associated with an actual increase in coronary resistance. Patients without obstruction also demonstrated evidence of ischemia at heart rates of 130 and 150 beats/min, with 25 of 27 patients experiencing chest pain. In this group, myocardial ischemia occurred at significantly lower coronary flow, higher coronary resistance and lower myocardial oxygen consumption, suggesting more severely impaired flow delivery in this group compared with those with obstruction. Abnormalities in myocardial oxygen extraction and marked elevation in filling pressures during stress were noted in both groups. Thus, obstruction to left ventricular outflow is associated with high left ventricular systolic pressure and oxygen consumption and therefore has important pathogenetic importance to the precipitation of ischemia in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Patients without obstruction may have greater impairment in coronary flow delivery during stress.

Limited coronary flow reserve after dipyridamole in patients with ergonovine-induced coronary vasoconstriction.

Patients with anginal chest pain despite angiographically normal coronary arteries and left ventricles may have abnormalities of coronary flow reserve. Twenty-five patients were found to have limited flow reserve during rapid atrial pacing after administration of 0.15 to 0.30 mg iv ergonovine, associated with precipitation of chest pain and hemodynamic and metabolic evidence of myocardial ischemia. No significant narrowing occurred in epicardial coronary artery luminal diameter. An additional 15 patients had no chest pain during pacing; because they developed significantly higher great cardiac vein flow and lower coronary resistance they were considered to have normal vasodilator reserve. After administration of dipyridamole (0.5 to 0.75 mg/kg iv), the lowest absolute levels to which coronary resistance fell (0.79 +/- 0.23 vs 0.47 +/- 0.12 mm Hg X min/ml; p less than .001) and the maximal absolute levels to which great cardiac vein flow rose (134 +/- 34 vs 202 +/- 45 ml/min; p less than .001) were impaired in the 25 patients with ergonovine-induced flow limitation compared with the 15 patients without flow limitation after ergonovine. In addition, 18 of the 25 patients with limited flow reserve after dipyridamole experienced chest pain despite an increase in coronary flow. In these patients, dipyridamole-induced increased flow across small prearteriolar coronary arteries, which were narrowed because of abnormal tonus or sensitivity to vasoconstrictor stimuli, could have resulted in a transmural redistribution of blood flow away from the subendocardium, precipitating subendocardial ischemia. These studies suggest that patients with anginal chest pain despite normal epicardial coronary arteries may have exaggerated coronary responses to vasoconstrictor stimuli, which can result in myocardial ischemia during stress, as well as attenuated responses to coronary vasodilator stimuli.

Three year anatomic, functional and clinical follow-up after successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty.

Because the long-term anatomic effects of percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty are unknown, follow-up evaluations including coronary angiography, treadmill exercise testing and rest and bicycle exercise radionuclide angiography were performed in 46 patients 6.3 +/- 2.0 and 37.6 +/- 3.6 (mean +/- SD) months after they had undergone successful single lesion angioplasty. The severity of the coronary stenosis decreased significantly at each evaluation; the mean diameter stenosis was 66 +/- 13% before angioplasty, 30 +/- 13% immediately after and 26 +/- 16% and 19 +/- 13% at 6 months and 3 years, respectively. Exercise time increased from 9.8 +/- 4.4 minutes before angioplasty to 18.3 +/- 4.5 minutes immediately after the procedure and remained at that level at 6 months (20.3 +/- 4.6 minutes) and 3 years (18.2 +/- 4.5 minutes). Left ventricular ejection fraction during exercise decreased 4 +/- 6% compared with rest before angioplasty, but increased 7 +/- 7% immediately after angioplasty and this increase was maintained at 6 months (+/- 6 +/- 7%) and 3 years (+/- 4 +/- 6%). Before angioplasty, 1 patient was in Canadian Heart Association functional class 0, 15 were in class II, 24 in class III and 6 in class IV. Three years later, 25 were in class 0, 10 in class I, 7 in class II and 4 in class III. These results indicate that the short-term anatomic and functional success of coronary angioplasty is maintained for at least 3 years.

Indices of sympathetic vascular innervation in sympathectomized patients.

We measured arterial and venous plasma catecholamines and used laser-Doppler flowmetry to measure cutaneous microcirculatory flow in the sympathectomized and in the intact limbs of 3 patients who had undergone regional sympathectomies. Venous concentrations of norepinephrine, the sympathetic neurotransmitter, exceeded arterial concentrations in the intact limbs--a normal finding--but invariably were less than arterial in the sympathectomized limbs of the same patients, both during baseline conditions and during sympathetic stimulation using tilt, standing and the cold pressor test (mean arteriovenous decrement about 40%). Arterial epinephrine levels exceeded venous levels with or without sympathectomy. Skin microvascular flow rapidly decreased during the cold pressor test and the Valsalva maneuver in the intact but not in the sympathectomized limbs, and spontaneous flow oscillations occurred in the sympathectomized limbs. The results suggest that an arteriovenous increment in plasma norepinephrine reflects local release of norepinephrine from sympathetic nerve endings, whereas removal of circulating catecholamines can occur with or without sympathetic neural impulses. Laser-Doppler flowmetry can measure reflexive sympathetically mediated responses of skin microvascular flow and so can detect sympathetic denervation. Spontaneous oscillations in this flow may not depend exclusively on oscillations in the activity of the sympathetic microvascular innervation.

Left ventricular pulsus alternans in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe obstruction to left ventricular outflow.

Left ventricular pulsus alternans (LVPA), a rhythmic beat to beat variation in left ventricular systolic pressure and outflow gradient, was noted in 35 of 200 ventricular systolic pressure and outflow gradient, was noted in 35 of 200 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy undergoing hemodynamic study. LVPA was not associated with significant systemic pulsus alternans nor right ventricular pulsus alternans. All patients with LVPA had severe outflow gradients at rest or during provocation. Of 61 patients with severe basal outflow gradients (greater than 80 mm Hg), 12 demonstrated LVPA at rest. Eight of these patients underwent ventricular septal myotomy-myectomy; all had successful abolition of basal outflow gradient. Of the seven of these eight patients who underwent postoperative hemodynamic study and who were in sinus rhythm, none demonstrated LVPA. Eleven of 60 patients with basal outflow gradients ranging from 10 to 70 mm Hg demonstrated LVPA during maneuvers provocative for outflow gradients (mean gradient 90 +/- 37 mm Hg). Two of these patients underwent ventricular septal myotomy-myectomy; neither had a gradient nor LVPA during provocation postoperatively. Twelve additional patients with basal outflow gradients ranging from 0 to 115 mm Hg had LVPA after ectopic beats, generally occurring during maneuvers provocative for outflow gradients, associated with severe outflow gradients (mean gradient 130 +/- 39 mm Hg) during the postextrasystolic beat. None of the 41 patients without an outflow gradient, basal or during provocation, was found to have LVPA. Thus LVPA is commonly seen in during provocation, was found to have LVPA. Thus LVPA is commonly seen in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and severe left ventricular outflow gradients and may represent inadequate left ventricular contractile function in the presence of high left ventricular systolic pressures.

Isovolumic relaxation period in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: assessment by radionuclide angiography.

Left ventricular isovolumic relaxation and the relation between relaxation and filling were studied in 90 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 29 control subjects using radionuclide angiography. The isovolumic relaxation period was determined automatically on left ventricular time-activity curves as the interval between minimal volume and onset of rapid filling. In 17 patients, M-mode echocardiography performed simultaneously with radionuclide angiography demonstrated that onset of mitral valve opening correlated well with onset of rapid filling (r = 0.84, p less than 0.001). The isovolumic relaxation period was longer in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy than in control subjects (95 +/- 44 versus 50 +/- 23 ms, p less than 0.01) and was longer in patients without an outflow tract gradient at rest than in patients with a gradient (109 +/- 37 versus 86 +/- 35 ms, p less than 0.05). In these patients without obstruction, a weak linear relation between duration of the isovolumic period and peak filling rate was found (r = 0.48, p less than 0.02). Filling was impaired in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, as assessed by lower peak filling rate (3.2 +/- 1.2 versus 3.5 +/- 0.5 end-diastolic volume/s, p less than 0.05) and prolonged time to peak filling rate (185 +/- 44 versus 145 +/- 20 ms, p less than 0.01) compared with values in control subjects. The delay in time to peak filling rate was caused primarily by the prolonged isovolumic period, because the interval from onset of rapid filling to peak filling rate was similar in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and control subjects (87 +/- 31 versus 95 +/- 25 ms, NS).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)