SELECTED Mayerson, Syncope
H. S.: Induced
Roentgenkyrnographic by Gravity. Am.
285
ABSTRACTS Determination J. Physiol. 138: 630,
Individuals who can stand quietly for at least changes in the stroke and cardiac outputs during Fainters by the roentgenkymographic method. If no marked functions under the same conditions. put just before syncope is 25 to 35 per cent less ing period, while the cardiac output has diminished ment of syncope in quiet standing is primarily muscular contraction which results in a diminished failure is seeondary.
of Cardiac 1943.
Output
in
twenty minutes show insignificant the standing period as determined show a marked decrease in these movement occurs, the stroke outthan at the beginning of the standThe develop21 to 43 per cent. due to the absence of adequate The vasomotor venous return. AUTHOR.
Lowsley, 121:
0. S., and 1137, 1943.
Cannon,
E. M.:
Aneurysm
of the
Renal Artery.
J. A.
19. A.
Aneurysm of the renal artery is a rare clinical pathologic entity. Only seventyfive easers have been reported to date, including a case of true aneurysm diagnosed preoperatively and presented here. A congenital defect in the wall of the renal artery, particularly at its bifurcation, is a hypothetic factor in the etiology of aneurysm. It is questionable whether trauma per se produces renal aneurysm. Only twelve of the seventy-five reported cases mere suspected prior to operation or death. True aneurysm is usually asymptomatic. A few patients have complained of pain in the flank. The cardinal symptoms of false aneurysm are hematuria, pain, and tumefaction in the flank. The pathognomonic signs, pulsation and a systolic bruit, have been present in seven cases. The presence in the x-ray film of a ringlike shadow, with a dense periphery disrupted in one portion, and a rarefaction of the center in the kidney or hilar region, is suggestive of a renal aneurysm. The treatment is surgical. In the literature, all patitents presenting symptoms who were not operated on died. Of the twenty-nine patients subjected to nephreetomy, twenty-six survived. Of thirty-seven patients who underwent operation, eight died, an operative mortality of 21 per cent. AUTHORS. Darrow,
D. C., and
Injections
Miller,
H.
C.:
The
of Desoxycorticosterone
Production
Acetate.
of Cardiac Lesions J. ,Clin. Investigation
by Repeated 21: 601,
1942. Evidence is presented that cardiac lesions were produced by prolonged injections of desoxycorticosterone acetate in rats. The dose of DOCA was 1, 2, and 4 mg. daily, and the observations were made over a period of thirty to forty days. Necrosis of the myoeardial fibers and replacement by fibroblasts were produced by these repeated injections. Pyridoxin intake did not influence the production of the lesions nor did a low intake of thiamin aggravate them. Diets low in potassium produced lesions in the heart which could not be distinguished from that produced by the repeated injections of DOCA. Only a suggestive lowering of the potassium in the cardiac muscle was found in eontrast to a more definite lowering of the potassium in the skeletal muscle. The cardiac lesions produced by injections of DOCA or diets low in potassium can be prevented by addition of potassium chloride to the drinking water. Deficit of body potassium is apparently essential for the production of these lesions. GRACE M. ROTH.