[Paroxysmal atrioventricular block due to anticholinesterase therapy]. / Troubles de la conduction auriculoventriculaire paroxystiques liés à la prise d'un anticholinestérasique.

The authors report a case of paroxysmal syncopal complete atrioventricular block due to anticholinesterase therapy occurring after the first administration. The block was reversible. It is therefore important to exclude this cause of atrioventricular block in the elderly in view of the increasing indications of this therapy.

Salicylate kinetics in old age.

Salicylate kinetics were determined in 28 subjects 25 to 92 years old who received single, oral doses of sodium salicylate (1 gm/1.73 m2). The serum AUCinfinity of total salicylate did not correlate with age. There was a weak positive correlation between the AUCinfinity of free (unbound) drug and age, but there was no apparent difference between the AUCinfinity values of the 15 women and 13 men. Seven of the 16 subjects greater than 70 years of age cleared salicylate at about the same rate as the younger subjects. A comparison of these seven subjects with the nine greater than 70 years old who were slow eliminators of salicylate revealed that the latter group consisted of more bedridden patients and that these patients had somewhat lower serum albumin concentrations, but they did not differ from the more rapid eliminators with respect to serum creatinine or urea nitrogen levels, SGOT, average age, female/male ratio, and average body weight. The serum protein binding of salicylate decreased with increasing age, apparently due mainly to decreasing serum albumin concentrations.

[Splenic arterial aneurysm rupturing into the splenic vein. A rare cause of acute fortal hypertension in the post-partum period (author's transl)]. / Anévrysme artériel splénique rompu dans la veine homologue. Une cause rare d'H.T.P. aiguë du "post-partum"

Following the sudden onset of a clinical syndrome of acute portal hypertension in a young woman in the course of childbirth, angiography revealed a voluminous aneurysm of the splenic artery rupture into the splenic vein. Surgical treatment was successful. The authors review the main characteristics of splenic arterio-venous fistulae and discuss the physiopathological problems of portal hypertension associated with such lesions.