Stokes-Adams attacks requiring pacemaker treatment in three patients with acute nonspecific myocarditis.

Three patients, aged 16--44 years, with complete heart block in acute myocarditis are reported. The diagnosis of myocarditis was based on the development of transitory repolarization disturbances on the ECG in association with clinical signs of acute infectious disease. All patients were brought to hospital due to repeated Stokes-Adams attacks and demonstrated ventricular asystoles for up to 25 sec. The patients were all successfully treated with temporary intracardiac pacing but one of them later turned out to require a permanent pacemaker. The possibility of differences in localization and in prognostic importance of conduction disturbances between infectious and ischemic myocardial disease is discussed.

Early work load tests for evaluation of long-term prognosis of acute myocardial infarction.

Exercise tests performed 3 and 9 weeks after acute myocardial infarction in 205 patients were found to give prognostic information on the survival during a follow-up period of 2 to 5 years. The appearance of tachycardia, major ventricular arrhythmias, or anginal complaints during these early exercise tests was thus accompanied by a significantly increased mortality during the observation period. Ventricular arrhythmias disclosed by exercise proved to be of higher prognostic significance than those recorded at rest on the same occasions. The usefulness of early exercise tests in the evaluation of the response to antiarrhythmic treatment after acute myocardial infarction as well as of the prognostic importance of the effects was documented in a smaller series of patients.

Effect of quinidine on maintaining sinus rhythm after conversion of atrial fibrillation or flutter. A multicentre study from Stockholm.

In a controlled study comprising 176 patients, quinidine in the form of Kinidin Durules was found to reduced significantly the recurrence of the atrial fibrillation during a 1-year follow-up period after successful electric shock conversion. After one year, 51 per cent (52/101) of the patients in the quinidine group, and 28 per cent (21/75) in the control group remained in sinus rhythm (P smaller than 0.001). No less than 43 per cent of the patients converted to sinus rhythm during treatment with maintenance doses of quinidine sulphate before intended DC conversion. Gastrointestinal side-effects were not uncommon, and caused interruption of quinidine treatment in some cases.