Agreement between ST elevation and late enhancement evaluated by MRI in patients with acute myocarditis.

BACKGROUND: ECG is widely used in the evaluation of patients with acute myocarditis. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has emerged as the most important imaging tool in the diagnosis of myocarditis. The objective of this study is to determine the agreement between ECG and MRI findings in patients with acute myocarditis. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort that includes 32 consecutive patients with acute myocarditis. ST elevation (STE) in mm was registered in every ECG lead. In every myocardial segment the presence of late enhancement (LE) was registered. RESULTS: STE was found in 75% of the patients, with the inferolateral region being the most frequently affected (46.9%). LE was found in most of the patients (87.5%); the inferolateral wall was also the most frequently affected (50%). There was a moderate agreement between the inferolateral localization of STE and LE in patients with acute myocarditis, k = 0.43, p = 0.01. There was no agreement for the other localizations. CONCLUSION: There was a moderate agreement between the localization of STE and LE only in the inferolateral localization. LE localization based on the STE localization cannot be inferred, neither vice versa in another localization different from the inferolateral.

[On the vaccination before and after Jenner]. / La vacunación antivariólica antes y después de Jenner.

The expression "inoculation" of smallpox was first employed by doctor Emanuel Timone, native of the Greek island of Chios and graduated from the Universities of Padua and Oxford. This method was largely employed in the XVIII century. Nevertheless, in 1798, the English physician Edward Jenner published the results of his observartions and his own experience with "vaccination", i. e. the inoculation of cowpox. These were exposed in his book "Inquiry into the causes and effects of the variolae vaccinae". This method soon substituted the variolization. However it must to be mentioned that, starting from 1770, vaccination was already performed in northern Europe by non medical personnel as for example the school teacher Peter Plett. Notwithstanding some initial opposition, vaccination quickly spreaded throughout Europe. It arrived to Spain in 1801 and thence was transferred to Spanish America and Philippines Islands with the expedition leaded by doctor Francisco Xavier Balmis. This expedition reached New Spain in June 1804, and remained there until February 1805 when embarked addressing to Philippines Islands. The other expeditionary group, leaded by doctor José Salvani, addressed toward Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, where Salvani died.

[On Mexican medicinal plants]. / De la herbolaria medicinal novohispana a los inicios de estudios botánico-farmacológicos sistematizados (bosquejo histórico).

During the XVIII century, two Spanish scientific expeditions arrived here led, respectively, by the naturalist Martín Sessé and by the Italian mariner Alessandro Malaspina di Mulazzo, dependent from the Spanish Government. The members collected a rich scientific material, which was carried to Madrid in 1820. At the end of XVIII century, the Franciscan friar Juan Navarro depicted and described several Mexican medicinal plants in the fifth volume of his "American Garden". In the last years of the Colonial period, fundamental works of Humboldt and Bonpland, on the geographic distribution of the American plants, were published. At the end of the XIX century, the first researches on the Mexican medicinal botany were performed at the laboratory of the "Instituto Médico Nacional" under the leadership of doctor Fernando Altamirano, starting pharmacological studies in our country. During the first half of the XX century, trials of cardiovascular pharmacology were performed in the small laboratories of the cardiological unit at the General Hospital of Mexico, due to doctor Ignacio Chávez, initiative. Mexican botanical-pharmacological tradition remains alive and vigorous in the modern scientific institutes of the country.

[Uncomplicated and complicated myocardial peripheral blocks]. / Bloqueos miocárdicos periféricos no complicados y complicados.

Septal necrosis + peripheral left blocks. Because of an extensive septal necrosis, the manifestation of the initial ventricular activation forces decreases in the precordial leads. With left bifascicular block (LASB + LPSB), the first ventricular activation forces become more evident and the electrical signs of septal necrosis can be concealed. In the presence of a trifascicular block, the manifestation of the first ventricular electromotive forces diminishes again and the electrical signs of septal necrosis become evident once more. Small Q waves are present in leads V1 to V4. Extensive anterior necrosis + left peripheral blocks. This necrosis is manifested by QS complexes from V2 to V6. An associated left bifascicular block reduces the electrical manifestation of dead tissue: QS complexes persist only in V3 and V4. In turn, a coexisting trifascicular block causes the presence of QS complexes from V2 to V5. Posteroinferior necrosis + left peripheral blocks. Electromotive forces of the ventricular activation shift upward, due to a posteroinferior necrosis, and QS or QR complexes are recorded in leads aVF, II and III. An associated left bifascicular block displaces the main electromotive forces downward, posteriorly and to the left, due to a delay of the posteroinferior activation fronts. The ventricular complexes become positive and wider in all leads, reflecting the potential variations of the inferior portions of the left ventricle: aVF, II, III, sometimes V5 and V6. Consequently, the electrical signs of necrosis are reduced or abolished. Right ventricular peripheral blocks do not conceal the electrocardiographic signs of univentricular and biventricular dead myocardium.

Antiarrhythmic and arrhythmogenic action of inosine in experimental ventricular tachyarrhythmias.

OBJECTIVE: To study the possible action of inosine on experimental ventricular tachyarrhythmias. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used 92 mongrel dogs weighing 13 kg-17 kg, anesthetized with 30 mg/kg sodium pentobarbital applied intravenously. Myocardial lesions were induced by injecting 1 ml-1.5 ml of 70% phenol in the free wall of the left ventricle. In 36 dogs, the ventricular arrhythmia (VT) was induced 30 min later with aconitine crystals inserted into the periphery of the damaged area; in 16, VT was due only to myocardial damage and in the other 13 VT was spontaneously originated. Twenty-nine animals constituted the control group; no inosine was administered to them. The possible effects of inosine were studied in 63 animals. Leads II, aVR or aVL, right and Left unipolar intraventricular leads and that on the wall of the superior vena cava were recorded under control conditions, once the myocardial damage had been induced, during the ventricular tachycardia, and following the injection of inosine. Of the 63 inosine-treated animals; in 34, VT was due to aconitine; in 16, it was produced only by the myocardial damage and, in 13, VT was presented spontaneously. RESULTS: Sinus rhythm was not reestablished in the animals of the control group. Inosine reestablished the sinus rhythm in 26 of 34 dogs (76%) that received phenol and aconitine, in 13 of the 16 (81%) presenting only the myocardial damage, and in 6 of the 13 (46%) with spontaneous ventricular tachycardia. In some experiments, inosine induced supraventricular tachycardias, ventricular-atrial blocks, and ventricular pre-excitation phenomena. CONCLUSIONS: In this experimental series, inosine showed antiarrhythmic and arrhythmogenic effects, similar to those of adenosine from which it derives.

[Truncus arteriosus, anatomy, surgical treatment, follow up]. / Tronco común. Variantes anatómicas, tratamiento quirúrgico y evolución.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate through a retrospective cohort the anatomy and results of patients that were operated of truncus arteriosus. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Historic cohort. From January 2000 to December 2005 twenty eight patients with troncus arteriosus were operated. RESULTS: There were fifteen male (53.6%) and 13 female patients (46.4%). The median age, at the time of the surgery, was 10.5 months. The median weight, at the time of the surgery was 6 kg. All the patients were dominant aortic. A woven-dacron tube was used in 25 cases, Hanckock to 2 and Barbero Marcial procedure in one. The media diameter for the tube for the 27 patients (96.4%) was of 14 +/- 2 mm. Two patients required aortic valvular replacement at the same time of the surgery and two more during follow up, after the first surgery. Fifty per cent of the patients had pulmonary hypertension crisis after de surgery. There were three deaths: one patient had cardiogenic shock; another had pulmonary hypertension and one more had obstruction of the traqueostomy cannula. During study monitoring, 3 patients (10.7%) needed interventionist procedures. One case needed dilatation of the tube and two cases needed dilatation of the pulmonary branches to implant a stent device. There has been one tube change 4.2 years after the correction. Actuarial survival after 30 days was of 96.42%, and 88.9% after one and five years. CONCLUSIONS: The surgical correction of the truncus arteriosus has allowed changing the natural history of this disease. Mortality is low however our follow up is not very long yet.

[Absent pulmonary valve syndrome. Evaluation, surgical treatment and risk factors]. / Síndrome de la válvula pulmonar ausente. Evolución, tratamiento y factores asociados a muerte.

From 1991 to 2003 were studied 33 cases with absent pulmonary valve syndrome (AVPS): 66% were female, with a medium age of 1.5 years old and 11 kg of weight. Twenty seven cases (82%) were associated to Tetralogy of Fallot. Fourteen patients (5 younger than 1 year old) had corrective surgery. After the surgery, one patient required ballon pulmonary valvuloplasty for pulmonary stenosis; another one required surgery for changing the pulmonary prothesis one and five years after the first surgery. The rest of the patients did not present important problems. The five year survival was 95.4% in patients older than 6 months and 30.1% in younger patients (p = 0.000). As factors associated to mortality were the age younger than six months old (p = 0.003) and mechanical ventilation (p = 0.001) in our population. We suggest to delay the surgery in this group of patients because no survival were seen with or without the surgery. In older children with symptoms, the surgery also must be delayed in order to avoid more interventions for changing the pulmonary prothesis.

[Left posterolateral extensive myocardial infarct. An electroanatomical comparison]. / Infarto posterolateral izquierdo extenso. Cotejo electro-anatómico.

A complete ECG thoracic circle allows exploring some heart structures not explored by the conventional electrocardiogram. It provides a direct indication on the location of the damaged myocardium. In fact, posterolateral infarctions can be limited to the inferior third of the left ventricle or can cover the entire free left ventricular wall from the base up to the heart apex and can be univentricular or biventricular. On the other side, the unipolar thoracic leads and the high abdominal leads MD, ME, MI show the evolution of the signs of injury, characteristic of the acute stage of infarction, toward necrosis. We present the example of a 61-year-old man, whose ECG shows signs of subepicardial or transmural injury and of necrosis in the low precordial leads V5 and V6, as well as in the high left posterior leads V8 and V9. This fact suggests the presence of an acute extensive myocardial infarction extending from the base to the heart apex. Moreover, the moderate elevation of the RS-T segment from to V9R to V7R indicates the presence of subepicardial injury in the high posterior regions of the right ventricular wall. These electrocardiographic data were confirmed by the radioactive isotope study and, definitively, by the anatomical findings.

[Hyperglycemia controlled with GIK solution in non-diabetic patients subjected to heart surgery]. / Control de la hiperglucemia con la solución de glucosa-insulina-potasio en pacientes no diabéticos en cirugía cardíaca.

UNLABELLED: We prospectively compared, the glucose-insulin-potassium (GIK) solution 1,000 mL 10% glucose, 20 units of fast acting insulin and 60 mEq of potassium chloride, against a GIK solution with 1,000 mL of glucose, 40 units of fast acting insulin an 120 mEq of chloride, in the hyperglycemic control of non-diabetic patient subjected to cardiac surgery. We divided 40 patients in four groups ten patients each. Group A was the control they received 1,000 mL of 10% glucose in water, 20 units of fast acting insulin and 60 mEq of potassium chloride in a drops/ hour dose without an infusion pump. Group B received the same solution in a 50 mL/hour dose. Group C received 1,000 mL of 10% glucose in water, 40 units of fast acting insulin plus, 120 mEq of potassium chloride at the same infusion rate as Group A. Group D 2 1,000 mL of 10% of glucose in water, 40 units of fast acting insulin in the same rate as Group B. The GIK solution was started after anesthesia induction and maintained all along the extracorporeal circulation, the study continued until the patient was transferred to the intensive care unit. We measured blood glucose, circulating insulin and seric levels of potassium three times; basal before the anesthetic induction, during the extracorporeal circulation and at the intensive care unit arrival. The data were analyzed with measure of central tendency, dispersion and multivariate analysis. RESULTS: Among the four groups no statistically significant differences existed in demographic data. In Group A, glucose and potassium levels were higher as compared with the rest of the groups (p <0.05) in all measurements; Group D was less hyperglycaemic as compared with Groups A, B, and C. CONCLUSION: The solution with low insulin dose does useful plasmatic insulin levels in the hyperglycemia in non diabetic patients subjected to cardiac surgery.

[On human morphological studies in New Spain and in Mexico of nineteenth century]. / Acerca de los estudios morfológicos en humanos en la Nueva España y en el México decimonónico.

The renewed anatomical studies reached a culmination in the XVI century allowing the discovery of the pulmonary blood circulation and later of the systemic blood circulation. The XVII century saw the coming of microscopic anatomy and the XVIII witness the systematization of pathological anatomy. These studies will be impelled during following century toward the clinical-anatomical comparison. Regarding to America, the anatomical studies began in New Spain, when the first textbooks of anatomy, surgery and physiology were published. The first anatomy chair was established in 1621 at the Royal and Papal University of Mexico. The teaching of anatomy was modernized, making that more practical, at the Royal School of Surgery, which began to function in 1770. In the Establishment of Medical Sciences, founded in 1833, surgery was incorporated to internal medicine. This fact permitted to unify the anatomical teaching. If on examines the lists of textbooks utilized in the different periods, it comes out that these books belonged with the contemporaneous advances of science. This consideration concerns also the receptional thesis presented to Faculty of Medicine during the XIX century.

[On the diagnostic value of indirect electrocadiographic signs of left posterolateral basal infarction]. / Acerca del valor diagnóstico de los hallazgos ECG indirectos de infarto miocárdico posterolateral basal izquierdo.

The left basal posterolateral infarct does not give pathological Q waves nor ventricular QS complexes in the low lateral leads V5 and V6. For that, the increased voltage of R waves in the lead V2 and or transitional leads V3 and V4, constitutes only an indirect sign of the presence of dead myocardium in the left posterolateral basal regions. Naturally, in these cases, a differential diagnosis with left ventricular or biventricular hypertrophy is mandatory. Therefore it is suitable to register left posterior thoracic leads V7-V9 or, preferably, a complete thoracic circle. We present here three examples: two experimental and another clinical, in which the electrocardiographic findings corresponded to anatomical data of a left posterolateral basal infarction. This fact speaks for a no absolute but relative diagnostic value of the indirect electrocardiographic signs of altered ventricular depolarization and repolarization in the left posterolateral basal regions of the left ventricle.

[Hypoplastic left ventricle syndrome. Report of a case in an adult woman]. / Sindrome de ventrículo izquierdo hipoplásico. Reporte de una enferma en edad adulta.

Patients with hypoplastic left heart syndrome without surgery dye during the first year of life. In the literature there is only one report from our institution of a patient who survived to the second decade of life without surgery. The purpose of this work is to describe a case of a 24 years old female with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, who has survived until now in functional class I of New York Heart Association without surgery. In our patient, the survival is probably related with the presence of a ductus arteriosus, an interatrial septal defect and the secondary pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Electrocardiographic characteristics of patients with Ebstein's anomaly before and after ablation of an accessory atrioventricular pathway.

UNLABELLED: The abnormal development of the tricuspid valve in patients with Ebstein's anomaly results in several activation abnormalities including delayed intraatrial conduction, right bundle branch block (RBBB), and ventricular preexcitation. The aim of the present study was to define the ECG characteristics before and after ablation of an accessory A-V pathway (AP) in patients with Ebstein's anomaly. METHODS: A series of 226 consecutive patients with Ebstein's anomaly was studied. Sixty-four patients (28%) had documented tachycardia. Thirty-three patients with recurrent tachycardia were found to have a single right-sided AP that was successfully ablated (study group). Thirty patients without tachycardia served as the control group. RESULTS: Only 21 of 33 patients (62%) had a typical ECG pattern of preexcitation. In addition, none of the patients had an ECG pattern of RBBB during sinus rhythm. In contrast, 28 of 30 (93%) patients in the control group had RBBB (P < 0.001). Radiofrequency catheter ablation resulted in appearance of RBBB in 31 of 33 (94%) patients. The absence of RBBB in patients with Ebstein's anomaly and recurrent tachycardia had a 98% sensitivity and 92% specificity for the diagnosis of an AP. The positive predictive value was 91% (0.77, 0.97 CI 95%) and the negative predictive value was 98% (0.85, 0.99 CI 95%). CONCLUSION: One-third of patients with Ebstein's anomaly and symptomatic tachyarrhythmias have minimal or absent ECG features of ventricular preexcitation. In these patients, the absence of RBBB pattern is a strong predictor of an AP.

[Electrocardiographic features of right ventricular hypertrophy in chronic cor pulmonale]. / Aspectos electrocardiográficos de la hipertrofia ventricular derecha en el cor pulmonale crónico.

The electrophysiological criteria for diagnosing right ventricular hypertrophy, characteristic of chronic cor pulmonale, are described. Right ventricular hypertrophy due to a sustained systolic overload can be global or regional. In the first situation, as for example, an idiopathic pulmonary hypertension, the magnitude and manifestation of all the main vectors resulting from the depolarization of this ventricle are increased: Ils (septal), llr (parietal), and Illr (basal). When the right ventricular hypertrophy is of the segmental (regional) type, as for example, that due to a chronic bronchial obstruction, the magnitude and manifestation of only some right vectors are increased. In this condition, only the magnitude of the right basal vector (Illr) is augmented. In the presence of subepicardial or transmural ischemia of the right ventricle, negative T waves of primary type are recorded in right precordial and transitional leads, where the Q-Tc interval is prolonged in the absence of digitalis effect. Two demonstrative examples of the correlations existing between the electrocardiographic and anatomical findings in global and regional hypertrophies, respectively, of the right ventricle are presented.

[Metabolic support of the ischemic heart during cardiac surgery]. / Apoyo metabólico del corazón isquémico en cirugía cardíaca.

We examine [IBM1] the basic principles and clinical results of the metabolic intervention with glucose-insulin-potassium (GIK) solutions in the field of cardiovascular surgery. On the basis of many international publications concerning this subject, and the experience obtained in the operating room of the Instituto Nacional de Cardiologia "Ignacio Chávez", we conclude that the metabolic support wit GIK is a powerful system that provides very useful energy to protect the myocardium during cardiac and non-cardiac surgery. The most recent publications indicate their effects in reducing low output syndromes, due to interventions on the coronary arteries, as well as producing a significant reduction of circulating fatty acids. These effects are produced also in the field of interventional cardiology, where GIK solutions protect the myocardium against damage due to impaired microcirculation. It is evident that these solutions must be utilized in higher concentrations that the initial ones, equal to those employed in laboratory animals. On the other side, it is worthy to remember that it has been always underlined that this treatment represents only a protection for the myocardium. Therefore, its association with other drugs or treatments favoring a good myocardial performance is not contraindicated--on the contrary, it yields better results. The present review presents pharmacological approaches, such as the use of glutamato, aspartate, piruvato, trimetazidina ranolazine and taurine to optimize cardiac energy metabolism, for the management of ischemic heart disease.

[On the ventricular arrhythmias in Chagasic chronic cardiomyopathy]. / En torno a las arritmias ventriculares en la miocardiopatía chagásica crónica.

Some authors have shown a high prevalence of electric circuits localized in the epicardium in Chagasic cardiomyopathy. Other authors have found in these patients, during electric mapping, mid-diastolic potentials and earlier myocardial activation in epicardial regions than in the endocardium. In a previous study, we found electrocardiographic signs of subepicardial ischemia in 66% of seropositive Chagasic patients against 16% of seronegative Chagasic ones. In the case presented here, a Chagasic dilated cardiomyopathy, we found electrocardiographic signs of subepicardial injury in the left free ventricular wall, related with histological findings of lymphocytic inflammation in these regions. In contrast, the endocardium was completely free from inflammation foci.

[An ECG-anatomical comparison in a case of Williams' syndrome]. / Cotejo electro-anatómico en un caso de síndrome de Williams.

A case of Williams' syndrome in a 22 years old man, is described. Clinical data, as well as those of laboratory and of imageneology study, are reported. An electro-anatomical comparison permitted to verify the value of electrocardiographic signs of enlargement of the four heart chambers, due to a mixed overload. It permitted also to establish the value of the signs of the interatrial block, probably due to myocardial atrial fibrosis, and those suggesting hyperkalemia. The electrocardiogram always is very useful because it furnishes certain functional aspects permitting to allow structural inferences, in following subjects with congenital or acquired heart diseases.

[Glucose-insulin-potassium (GIK) solution: cardioprotective effects of insulin]. / Solución de glucosa-insulina-potasio (GIK): efectos cardioprotectores de la insulina.

In the Anesthesiology Department of the Instituto Nacional de Cardiología The medical staff uses the glucose insulin potassium i.v. for myocardial protection. The energy is dereived from lipidic beta oxidation, glucose breakdown and amino acid catabolism in mitochondria. In myocardial ischemia, from de aortic cross clamping, the metabolic myocardial substrates diminished as well as the energy produced by adenosine (ATP). During myocardial ischemia, an increase in long chain lipids emhances mitochondrial permeability, promotes depletion of citochrome C and lost of the capability of transmembrane regulation. In the hipoperfused myocardium, by coronary vasoconstriction, short chain fatty acids oxidation predominates, if fatty metabolism during reperfusion is elevated. More of them will enter [IBM1] the Krebs cycle and, as a consequence, less energy will be produced. The glucose-insulin-potassium solution provides the glucose needed by the myocardium in reperfusion conditions and protects the cellular membrane's integrity as well as pumps and ionic channels, it allows maintaining the action potential probably because ATP-depended channels block and prevent potassium loss, it reduces the cytosol calcium overload and prevent cardiac arrhythmias, preserves the sodium ATPasa pump avoiding the rise in cytosolic sodium; glucose prevents the production of free oxygen radicals. Fatty acids, during ischemia, are responsible for the metabolism and elevation of enzymes, such as acilcarnitine and acylcoenzime-A, which promote intracellular calcium overload and arrhythmias. The insulin has anti-inflammatory effects and anti-apoptoic effects. When blood glucose is controlled during the perioperative period the mortality is reduced.

[From the medieval hospitals hospices to modern National public Health Institutes]. / De los hospitales u hospicios a los modernos institutos nacionales de salud.

Since the most ancient times, hospital constructions and progresses in the clinical practice advanced pari passu. We can find exampless of this statement in Greek regions as well as in Greek citie overseas. Thus, during the renaissance, great figures ot that time converged in Italy: The genius Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) and Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), a humanist and innovator of architecture. Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) and his contemporany artists performed anatomical dissection to perfect their art by studying the human body. Anatomical studies flourished at the University of Padua, driven by the Flemish Master. Based on the rigorous study of the anatomical substrate, the studies on the function of the already known organic structures excelled in the xvii century. That century started with the revelation of the major blood circulation by the British physician William Harvey, alumni of the University of Padua, and continued with the description of the minior or pulmonary circulation by ancient or contemporany authors and of the peripheral connections between the arterial and the venous system (Marcelo Malpighi, 1661). All these researchers, and others, were membres of the University of Padua, were the beneficial influence of the teachings of Galileo persisted. In the following centuries, together with the embryological and normal anatomy, the pathological anatomy, systematized by G.B. Morgani, became the cornerstone of the clinical practice. The model of the ancient hospitals evolved to ward the National Institutes of Health in Mexico fostered by Dr. Ignacio Chávez.

[The beginning of Mexican cardiology in the springtime of the Mexican National Academy of Medicine]. / Los inicios de la cardioangiología mexicana en los albores de la Academia Nacional de Medicina.

The National Academy of Medicine was founded 141 years ago during the French intervention. Under the sponsorship of this brand-new medical association, Mexican cardioangiology took its first steps in the medical and surgical field as well. After the falling of the second empire, the medical and surgical advances of this discipline continued. The corresponding publications appeared in different volumes of the "Gaceta Médica de México"; at present journal of the Academy still published in our time. These steps permitted the development of the true cardiologic speciality during 40s of the twentieth century, due to the vision of Professor Ignacio Chávez, father of Mexican cardiology. Some examples of application are the epistemologic criteria in cardiologycal domains such as the conception of Riva-Rocci's sphygmomanometer in Italy in the nineteenth century and the so-called cardiac metabolic therapy in Mexico of our time, are included.