[A population study of long-term salt restriction in mild hypertensives].

We all agree to the importance of the salt restriction in the prevention and the treatment of hypertension. But it is not easy to teach the way to reduce salt intake in each person or patient. And we also not confident that how long could they maintain the low salt diet. In this study we investigate following problems, 1) Can the salt intake be reduced in public population? 2) Can blood pressure be lowered by reducing salt intake in mildly hypertensive individuals? 3) If the desired changes are obtained, can they be preserved for a long time? and 4) Are there any difference in the amount of the salt intake between hypertensives and normotensives? One hundred and forty subjects from 23,940 people in whom borderline to mild hypertension was found at group medical examinations in each district, where a total of 29,940 people were examined, were registered to a educational course of new salt-restriction program. Salt intake was estimated from salt measurement in 24-hour urine samples. Educational program was composed of many lectures, sampling party and individualized consultations about dietary problems, using an original dietary questionnaire list. The results were as follows: In short-term (2.5 months) after the initial education, sodium intake reduced from 235.1 +/- 110.8 mmol/day to 161.4 +/- 85.0 mmol/day (p less than 0.001). The systolic and diastolic blood pressure also fell significantly in borderline hypertensives (from 148 +/- 7/87 +/- 5 mmHg to 141 +/- 12/85 +/- 7 mmHg, p less than 0.001) and hypertensives (from 165 +/- 13/99 +/- 8 mmHg to 157 +/- 15/95 +/- 8 mmHg, p less than 0.001) but they did not change in normotensives (from 133 +/- 6/80 +/- 6 mmHg to 131 +/- 9/82 +/- 8 mmHg). In long-term (range from 12 to 36 months) observation, low salt diet (167.6 +/- 72 mmol/day) and a fall in blood pressure were also maintained in borderline (142 +/- 2/85 +/- 7 mmHg, p less than 0.001) to hypertensive population (156 +/- 14/93 +/- 8 mmHg, p less than 0.001), and in the normotensive population, no change in blood pressure was observed (134 +/- 13/82 +/- 9 mmHg). Hypertensives tended to show higher sodium intake than normotensives (206 +/- 101 mmol/day vs. 199.0 +/- 96, p less than 0.005), and also show higher sodium/potassium ratio than normotensives and borderline hypertensives (4.3 +/- 2.3 vs. 3.6 +/- 1.6 and 3.8 +/- 1.8, p less than 0.005).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

A neurolinguistic study of autistic children employing dichotic listening.

A neurolinguistic study of 20 high functioning right-handed autistic children (19 males and 1 female) was carried out using a dichotic listening test of two-syllabic meaningful words with which to detect the level of binaural separation ability and the condition of hemispheric lateralization of language by examining the degree of ear advantage. The autistic children ranged from 5 to 15 years in age. Their IQ ranged from mildly retarded to normal. (The mean IQ was 67.6 and the mean mental age was 5 yr. 9 mo.). We compared them with non-autistic mentally retarded and normal children as controls, being matched by mental age and right handedness. The autistic children were found to be significantly lower on the level of binaural separation ability than the controls and to have a clearly higher incidence of a left ear advantage than the controls. The autistic and mentally retarded children showed lower advantage than normal children. These results indicate that the autistic children have a dysfunction or immaturity of the central auditory nervous system and an abnormality in the process of hemispheric lateralization of language.

[Right ventricular dysplasia and dilated cardiomyopathy observed by radionuclide images].

Four cases of right ventricular dysplasia (RVD) and 28 cases of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) were studied. RVD was characterized clinically by syncope, sustained recurrent ventricular tachycardia with left bundle branch block patterns on the surface electrocardiogram, and right heart failure. Furthermore, moderate to severe dilatation of the right ventricle and depressed right ventricular function were apparent on radionuclide angiography. However, left ventricular dilatation and depressed left ventricular function were documented in DCM. Right ventricular volume was proportional to left ventricular volume in DCM, however, right ventricular volume was disproportionately greater in RVD. On the T1-201 perfusion image, left ventricular perfusion defects were delineated in 10 of 26 patients with DCM, and in one of four RVD patients. During two to eight year follow-up periods, six patients died suddenly five of whom had left ventricular perfusion defects. However, in 19 patients without left ventricular perfusion defects, only one sudden death was observed. A connecting link between sudden death and left ventricular perfusion defect is suggested.

[Right ventricular dysplasia: clinical features compared with dilated cardiomyopathy].

Five patients with right ventricular dysplasia (RVD) and 28 patients with predominantly left sided dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) were studied. RVD was characterised by syncope, recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia, which typically had a left bundle branch block pattern on the surface electrocardiogram, right heart failure, and faint or absence of the right ventricular free wall on the myocardial scintigraphy. Two-dimensional echocardiographic, radionuclide angiographic, and contrast ventriculographic studies were typical of the right ventricular abnormalities in both Uhl's anomaly and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. Two of them were died suddenly. Pathologic examinations showed "parchment-like" thinning of portions of the right ventricular free wall and its replacement by adipose tissue, although such degenerations were not found in the septum and the left ventricle. By contrast, DCM was characterised by exertional dyspnea and short run ventricular tachycardia, most of which had a right bundle branch block pattern. Ten of them had left ventricular myocardial defects on the scintigraphy, of whom five died suddenly. Hemodynamic data showed that left ventricular dysfunction was predominant more than right ventricle. Thus we postulate that these two syndromes are manifestations of a congenital, pathophysiologic process - the "involved right or left ventricle" syndrome.