James L. Potts

Prophylactic digitalization for coronary artery bypass surgery.

One hundred and twenty patients undergoing aortocoronary bypass procedures were randomly placed into control and digitalized groups. All were initially in normal sinus rhythm and without evidence of congestive heart failure. Supraventricular arrhythmias occurred in 17 of 66 controls and in only three of 54 digitalized patients (P < 0.01). There was no evidence of digitalis toxicity. Based on this evidence we recommend prophylactic digitalization for patients having aortocoronary bypass operations.

Approach in the Management or Atrial Myxoma with Long-term Follow-up

Between 1972 and 1982, 9 patients underwent successful excision of atrial myxomas at the Upstate Medical Center. Eight patients had a left atrial myxoma and 1 a biatrial myxoma. There were 5 female and 4 male patients ranging from 16 to 63 years of age. Preoperative findings consisted of cerebral or peripheral emboli, congestive heart failure, and nonspecific symptoms. Diagnosis was confirmed by echocardiography and angiography in all but 1 patient. A biatrial operative approach was utilized in all patients except 1. Complete excision of the tumor with a cuff of normal tissue was performed. All heart chambers were carefully explored for presence of multicentric myxomas or tumor debris. There were no operative deaths or intraoperative embolizations. Follow-up has been 1 1/2 to 11 years. There has been 1 late noncardiac death. All patients underwent echocardiography postoperatively with no recurrence. The risk of intraoperative embolization and late recurrence is minimal with the biatriotomy technique. Two-dimensional echocardiography is extremely accurate in early diagnosis of myxomas and in the late follow-up of patients.

Cardiomyopathy in an adult with Bartter's syndrome and hypokalemia. Hemodynamic, angiographic and metabolic studies.

A case of an adult with Bartters syndrome (hyperplasia of the juxtaglomerular complex with hyperaldosteronism and hypokalemic alkalosis) is described; the patient had the unusual manifestation of cardiomyopathy, probably secondary to severe hypokalemia. Results of metabolic studies and kidney biopsy were consistent with Bartters syndrome; angiographic and hemodynamic findings were abnormal. The cardiomyopathy was confirmed at autopsy after the patients sudden death. Conclusions from this case are that severe hypokalemia can pose a serious threat both immediately in the form of dangerous arrhythmias and in the long term in the form of cardiomyopathy.

Gas Endarterectomy of Right Coronary Artery The Importance of Proximal Bypass Graft

Results of gas endarterectomy of the right coronary artery were evaluated in 29 consecutive patients. There were one surgical and two early postsurgical deaths. All three had postmortem examination, and in two there was occlusion of the gas endarterectomy. Five patients did not have repeat catheterization. Twenty-one patients were completely re-evaluated and had repeat cardiac catheterization one to sixteen months after surgery (mean eight months). Ten patients (Group A) had gas endarterectomy without a saphenous vein graft to the right coronary artery. Only one patient had significant vessel patency. Eleven patients (Group B) had the combined procedure of a saphenous vein graft anastomosed to the segment of artery that had the endarterectomy. There was excellent graft patency in seven patients (64%) and good distal flow into the segment that had endarterectomy in six of the seven patients. In conclusion, gas endarterectomy is not of value unless it can be combined with a saphenous vein graft to provide good flow to the distal vessel that had endarterectomy. Results with the combined procedure suggest that even with a severely diseased artery, gas endarterectomy can often provide continuing distal runoff for the graft.

Fluid Therapy in Severe Systemic Reaction to Radiopaque Dye

Two patients developed severe vascular collapse after left ventriculography with organic iodides. Hemodynamic monitoring showed marked reduction in systemic pressures. In one patient there was no response to the standard therapeutic measures in anaphylactic reactions, and prompt response to fluid administration was obtained. In the second patient response was prompt to fluids, adrenalin, and hydrocortisone.

An evaluation of the results of left ventricular aneurysmectomy: Use of a simplified method for analysis of the left ventriculogram

Twenty-three patients underwent left ventricular aneurysmectomy without coronary artery bypass or other surgical procedure. Fourteen patients (Group 1) benefitted from surgery, and nine fared poorly (Group 2), including the four postoperative deaths. Among the 19 survivors, 17 had postoperative catheterizations. Pre- and postoperative left ventriculograms in the right anterior oblique projection were analyzed by planimetry of the aneurysmal and non-aneurysmal areas. This method provided data favorably altered by surgery in the improved patients and unchanged in the others. None of the preoperative ventriculographic measurements effectively separated the postoperative patient groups. The poor results in the Group 2 patients were of heterogeneous origin arising from pre-, peri- and postoperative factors. The more important factors were the largest and smallest aneurysms, surgically induced mitral insufficiency, and progressive coronary artery disease. Thus, the improvement in surgical results from better angiographic preoperative case selection is possible, but limited.

Cine angiographic diagnosis of patent foramen ovale in paradoxical embolism

A case of paradoxical embolism is presented in which the antemortem diagnosis was facilitated by a new simple angiographic technique that demonstrated a patent foramen ovale. An additional 14 patients were studied by this technique, and one had a patent foramen ovale. The mechanism of reversal of the normal intraatrial pressure gradient and subsequent right to left shunt through a patent foramen ovale is discussed. This angiographic technique may be readily applied in any diagnostic catheterization laboratory and complements existing methods for detecting patency of the foramen ovale in patients with suspected paradoxidal embolism.