[The value of echocardiography in diagnosis of bacterial endocarditis]. / Stellenwert der Echokardiographie in der Diagnostik der bakteriellen Endokarditis.

In recent years echocardiography has become the most important method for the diagnosis of bacterial endocarditis. Though identification of valve vegetations by M-mode echocardiography was rather limited, two dimensional echocardiography--especially with transoesophageal application--has a sensitivity of more than 90% and a specificity of 98%. In addition, echocardiography is able to supply valuable contributions for the evaluation of the patient's prognosis and in the identification of complications of infective endocarditis, such as: the extent of valve destruction, rupture of chordeae and other parts of the valves, as well as the presence of intramyocardial and paravalvular abscesses. In addition, the application of Doppler-echocardiography allows the semiquantitative evaluation of the degree of any valve insufficiency.

[Acute granulocytopenia caused by cimetidine]. / Akute Granulozytopenie unter Cimetidin.

We observed three patients, who had shown a leuco - or granulocytopenia under application of the H2 receptor-antagonist Cimetidine. Cimetidine had been given in all cases i.v. and together with other partly cytotoxic substances. After ceasing the four to seven days Cimetidine therapy all patients showed a normalization within four days.