Sneddon's syndrome: cardiac pathology and antiphospholipid antibodies.

Forty-one patients (31 women, 10 men) aged 15-56 (mean age, 38) with Sneddon's syndrome characterised by cerebrovascular disease and widespread livedo reticularis in the absence of typical lupus features were studied. 16 patients (39%) had clinical and/or electrocardiographic signs of ischemic heart disease, with 2 of them having survived myocardial infarction. Cardiac murmurs (usually mitral systolic) were heard in 15 patients (37%). Echocardiography revealed mitral valve thickening in 13 of 32 tested patients (41%). Anticardiolipin antibodies were found in 22 patients (54%) and lupus anticoagulant in 25 of 38 tested patients (66%). In 6 patients (15%) neither anticardiolipin antibodies nor lupus anticoagulant were observed. Anticardiolipin antibodies were more often present in patients with ischemic heart disease (12 of 16), than in those without (10 of 25) (p less than 0.05). Mitral valve thickening was revealed more often in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (12 of 26 patients) than in those without (1 of 6); however, a statistically significant difference was not observed.

[Cardiac changes in familial Friedreich's ataxia (clinico-morphologic study)]. / Izmeneniia serdtsa pri semeinoi ataksii Fridreikha (kliniko-morfologicheskoe issledovanie).

In familial Friedreich's ataxia besides lesions of the nervous system there is also cardiac pathology, which frequently may be the reason of a lethal outcome. As a result of a clinico-morphological study of the heart of a deceased patient, it was demonstrated that the character of morphological changes points to severe dystrophical changes of the myocardium of the "idiopathical" cardiomyopathy type.

[Electrocardiographic changes in patients with hemorrhagic and ischemic strokes]. / Elektrokardiograficheskie izmeneniia u bol'nykh s gemorragicheskim i ishemicheskim insul'tom

The authors conducted a repeated ECG study of 200 patients with atherosclerosis and hypertensive disease in the acute phase of a cerebral stroke (57 patients with intracerebral hemorrhages and 143 with ischemic strokes). It was noted that the frequency and degree of expressed ECG disorders depended upon the character, extensiveness and localization of the focus in cerebral strokes.

[Autonomic paroxysms (of the stenocardia type) in vascular lesions primarily of the medio-basal portions of the temporal lobes of the brain]. / Vegetativnye paroksizmy (tipa stenokardii) pri sosudistom porazhenii preimushchestvenno medio-bazal'nykh otdelov visochnykh dolei golovnogo mozga

In patients with vascular brain pathology the authors observed cases of temporal epilepsy in the clinical picture of which prevailed (and sometimes were isolated) vegetative-vascular "stenocardia" paroxysms. Such clinical states made it possible to suggest that in this contingent there was stenocardia proper. Stenocardiac paroxysms, due to cerebral pathology, were in combination with affective, mnestic and other psychopathological and neurological symptoms, indicating to an involvement into the vascular process of cortical representations of vegetative functions in the temporal area: hippocamp, amygdalar nucleus and their connections with the diencephalo-stem structures.

[Electocardiographic changes in cerebral stroke patients with atherosclerosis and hypertension]. / Elektrokardiograficheskie izmeneniia pri mozgovom insul'te u bol'nykh aterosklerozom i gipertonicheskoi bolezn'iu

A dynamic electrocardiographic observation was conducted in 200 patients with cerebral stroke (57 patients had intracerebral haemorrhages, 143--ischaemic strokes). ECG changes as a sequele of cerebral stroke were found to manifest themselves in various cardiac rhythm disorders, disturbances in the conductivity and repolarization phase. "Cerebrogenic" ECG changes were found in 76.5% of the patients. ECG changes were noted to occur in different combinations which permits to distinguish three main variants.