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Acute rheumatism in pregnancy
792
AMERICAN
HEART
JOURNAL
Three patients with angina pectoris and positive electrocardiographic signs were treated with methyithiouracil. No effort was made to check the basal metabolic rates, as this was considered unnecessary. Their case histories are reported. Relatively large doses (0.6 Gm.) fotfive to six weeks or more were required before myxederna or relief from angina occurred. WAGNER.
McKeown, 50,
F. : Acute (Feb.), 1948.
Rheumatism
in
Pregnancy.
J. Obst.
& Gynaec.
Brit.
Emp.
60:
“The main purpose of this paper is to report two cases of pregnancy complicated by acute There was no clinical eviclence of the condition in these patients, rheumatic heart disease.” while the heart showed severe myocardiai damage. Brief summaries of the clinical records and of the pathologic reports are given. In short, the patients were well throughout pregnancy, but collapsed and died following delivery. The heart in each instance showed acute rheumatic endoIn retrospect, the hearts of six pregnant patients with mitral stenosis carditis and myocarditis. who died from cardiac failure were re-examined and four showed evidence of recent rheumatic myocardiai lesions. The author comments as follows: (1) Even in a heart not the site of a mechanical lesion, recurrent rheumatic carditis may be responsible for acute myocardial failure; (2) it is dangerous to correlate the presence of a chronic vaivuiar lesion with fatal outcome in the absence of microscopic examination of the heart. WAGNER. Gruhzit, 0. M., Fisken, R. A., and Cooper, (N(CzHb);NCl). Acute and Chronic Toxicity & Exper. Therap. 92:103 (Feb.), 1948.
B. J.: Tetraethylammonium in Experimental Animals.
Chloride J. Pharmacoi.
Tetraethylammonium chloride was administered both orally and parenteraliy in albino mice, albino rats, and dogs. With large doses, no matter what the route of administration, the animals died within ten to thirty minutes of respiratory failure. The following signs occurred before “Severe incoordination, flaccid prostration, respiratory and cardiac depression, marked death: ptosis and edema of eyelids, mydriasis, ocular muscle paralysis (inversion of eyeballs), erythema of ocular, nasal, and less so of buccal membranes, paralysis of accessory respiratory muscles of chest, and death from respiratory and circulatory collapse.” Sublethal doses were well tolerated when given over long periods of time, even when the amount of drug given was large enough to cause some of these signs two to three hours after adDuring chronic toxicity experiments with sublethal doses, there were no hemaministration. toiogic, renal, or hepatic signs of damage that could be detected by blood counts, total blood nonprotein nitrogen, total plasma protein, albumin-globulin fractions, bromsuiphaiein blood concentration, or urinalysis. congestive blood stasis Necropsy lesions in acute toxicity experiments consisted in “severe and petechial hemorrhages in visceral organs, liver, lungs, kidneys, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, Edema and necrotic changes were noted around the central veins urinary, bladder, and brain.” of the liver. Cloudy swelling was noted in the kidneys, along with changes in the cytoplasm of the ceils lining the loops of Henie. Repeated
Lipschitz, W. Persons.
administration
of sublethal
L., and Stokey, E.: J. Pharmacoi. & Exper.
doses
Diuretic Therap.
produced
Action 92:131
no significant
pathologic
of Formoguanamine (Feb.), 1948.
lesions. GODFREY. in
Normal
The authors have previously re,ported the mode of diuretic action of formoguanamine (J. Pharmacol. & Exper. Therap. 83:235, 1945). F‘orrllogualtami~Ir has been found f o be tnarkedly mol-e &ec:ti.c-<* as :I tliut.et ic- I IMII ur(‘il. SI utlies on dogs and rabbits failed to reveal any significant toxicity. Eight healthy male volunteers were given formoguanamine in doses from 3.5 to 11.0 mg. per kilogram of botiy weight. It was found IO givr a more ronsislnnt diuresis ihan either caffeine
AMERICAN
HEART
JOURNAL
Three patients with angina pectoris and positive electrocardiographic signs were treated with methyithiouracil. No effort was made to check the basal metabolic rates, as this was considered unnecessary. Their case histories are reported. Relatively large doses (0.6 Gm.) fotfive to six weeks or more were required before myxederna or relief from angina occurred. WAGNER.
McKeown, 50,
F. : Acute (Feb.), 1948.
Rheumatism
in
Pregnancy.
J. Obst.
& Gynaec.
Brit.
Emp.
60:
“The main purpose of this paper is to report two cases of pregnancy complicated by acute There was no clinical eviclence of the condition in these patients, rheumatic heart disease.” while the heart showed severe myocardiai damage. Brief summaries of the clinical records and of the pathologic reports are given. In short, the patients were well throughout pregnancy, but collapsed and died following delivery. The heart in each instance showed acute rheumatic endoIn retrospect, the hearts of six pregnant patients with mitral stenosis carditis and myocarditis. who died from cardiac failure were re-examined and four showed evidence of recent rheumatic myocardiai lesions. The author comments as follows: (1) Even in a heart not the site of a mechanical lesion, recurrent rheumatic carditis may be responsible for acute myocardial failure; (2) it is dangerous to correlate the presence of a chronic vaivuiar lesion with fatal outcome in the absence of microscopic examination of the heart. WAGNER. Gruhzit, 0. M., Fisken, R. A., and Cooper, (N(CzHb);NCl). Acute and Chronic Toxicity & Exper. Therap. 92:103 (Feb.), 1948.
B. J.: Tetraethylammonium in Experimental Animals.
Chloride J. Pharmacoi.
Tetraethylammonium chloride was administered both orally and parenteraliy in albino mice, albino rats, and dogs. With large doses, no matter what the route of administration, the animals died within ten to thirty minutes of respiratory failure. The following signs occurred before “Severe incoordination, flaccid prostration, respiratory and cardiac depression, marked death: ptosis and edema of eyelids, mydriasis, ocular muscle paralysis (inversion of eyeballs), erythema of ocular, nasal, and less so of buccal membranes, paralysis of accessory respiratory muscles of chest, and death from respiratory and circulatory collapse.” Sublethal doses were well tolerated when given over long periods of time, even when the amount of drug given was large enough to cause some of these signs two to three hours after adDuring chronic toxicity experiments with sublethal doses, there were no hemaministration. toiogic, renal, or hepatic signs of damage that could be detected by blood counts, total blood nonprotein nitrogen, total plasma protein, albumin-globulin fractions, bromsuiphaiein blood concentration, or urinalysis. congestive blood stasis Necropsy lesions in acute toxicity experiments consisted in “severe and petechial hemorrhages in visceral organs, liver, lungs, kidneys, spleen, gastrointestinal tract, Edema and necrotic changes were noted around the central veins urinary, bladder, and brain.” of the liver. Cloudy swelling was noted in the kidneys, along with changes in the cytoplasm of the ceils lining the loops of Henie. Repeated
Lipschitz, W. Persons.
administration
of sublethal
L., and Stokey, E.: J. Pharmacoi. & Exper.
doses
Diuretic Therap.
produced
Action 92:131
no significant
pathologic
of Formoguanamine (Feb.), 1948.
lesions. GODFREY. in
Normal
The authors have previously re,ported the mode of diuretic action of formoguanamine (J. Pharmacol. & Exper. Therap. 83:235, 1945). F‘orrllogualtami~Ir has been found f o be tnarkedly mol-e &ec:ti.c-<* as :I tliut.et ic- I IMII ur(‘il. SI utlies on dogs and rabbits failed to reveal any significant toxicity. Eight healthy male volunteers were given formoguanamine in doses from 3.5 to 11.0 mg. per kilogram of botiy weight. It was found IO givr a more ronsislnnt diuresis ihan either caffeine