[Clinical considerations in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (in thyrotoxicosis patients)]. / Soobrazheniia klinicheskogo poriadka po povodu lecheniia mertsatel'noi aritmii (u bol'nykh tireotoksikozom).

Altogether 136 patients with thyrotoxicosis complicated by atrial fibrillation were treated. After drug treatment alone and strumectomy if indicated, over two-thirds of the patients showed sinus rhythm recovery after the attainment of euthyrosis even before institution of the treatment with antiarrhythmic drugs. It is concluded that in patients with removed thyrotoxicosis, uneliminated atrial fibrillation does not interfere with surgery which should not be postponed, since 10% of the patients demonstrate unaided sinus rhythm recovery in the immediate postoperative period. The disappearance of fibrillation consequent on the treatment of thyrotoxicosis patients including those over 50 years suggests that reversible alterations in the myocardium and in its thyrotoxicosis-induced dystrophy underlie heart rhythm disorders seen in thyrotoxicosis.

[Myocardial diseases: their etiology, nomenclature and classification (apropos of the classification of noncoronarogenic myocardial lesions published in Kardiologiia No. 5, 1978)]. / Bolezni serdechnoi myshtsy: ikh étiologiia, nomenklatura, klassifikatsiia (po povodu klassifikatsii nekoronarogennykh povrezhdenii miokarda, opublikovannoi v No. 5 zhurnala "Kardiologiia" za 1978 g.).

The main forms of "noncoronarogenous" diseases of the heart muscle and the problems of their nomenclature are discussed, an attempt is made in particular to determine the borderline between the concepts of "myocardial dystrophy" and "cardiomyopathy". The article also deals with the role of infections in the origin of inflammatory processes in the heart muscle (myocarditis) and its dystrophy. A conclusion is drawn on the expediency, from the standpoint of nomenclature, to designate the pathological condition of the myocardium in the course of an infectious disease only by the term "myocarditis". The relation between "primary cardiomyopathies" and Fiedler's idiopathic myocarditis is discussed. The possible role of virus infection in the origin of the indicated forms of myocardial diseases is considered. The classification of noncoronarogenous myocardial lesions published in Kardiologia (1978, No. 5) is discussed. The author of the present article thinks that it may be appraised quite favourably on the whole, and also makes some remarks.