Medical versus surgical treatment of unstable angina.

Unstable angina is an important symptom of coronary artery disease. Two general clinical presentations may occur: (1) stable angina with a recent increase in severity or angina of recent onset, or (2) acute coronary insufficiency or angina at rest with chest pain resembling that of acute infarction. The risk of death or infarction is greater in patients who have recurrent chest pain and ST-T wave abnormalities despite hospital treatment. In patients without electrocardiographic or serum enzyme evidence of a completed infarct, coronary arteriography and bypass graft surgery can be performed with an acceptably low mortality rate. Surgical treatment provides better symptomatic relief than medical management in many patients, but the significant incidence of perioperative infarction makes it difficult to determine if surgery prevents infarction. Some studies indicate that surgery improves survival in subgroups, but data from large scale randomized studies will be needed to answer this question securely. Patients with disease of the left main coronary artery should probably have surgical treatment. Medical treatment will relieve symptoms in most patients with unstable angina and on a long-term basis may obviate the need for surgery. A preliminary period of intensive medical treatment before surgery may be advantageous since there is little evidence that survival rates are improved by treating unstable angina as an acute surgical emergency.

Surgical management of complicated acute coronary insufficiency.

Acute coronary insufficiency (ACI) has a one year mortality rate approximating 40 percent with medical treatment alone. This report reviews our experience over 24 months with preoperative intra-aortic balloon pump assist (IABPA) in 42 patients with ACI. Abnormal left ventricular (LV) hemodynamics were present in the majority of patients; the ejection fraction was less than 40 percent in 14 patients. The endocardial viability ratio (EVR) was less than 0.7 in eight patients. The mean coronary artery score was 13, compared to 9 in an otherwise comparable group of patients with stable angina. Left main coronary stenosis greater than 75 percent was present in seven patients and combined with significant stenosis (less than 72 percent) in the dominant right system in four patients. Four patients had proximal stenoses greater than 90 percent in all three major coronary arteries. IABPA was initiated in 11 patients prior to angiography because of refractory rest pain. One of these six patients died. Twenty-five other patients were supported before and six after induction of general anesthesia. Thirty-three of 36 revascularized patients survived. Of four patients with perioperative myocardial infarctions (12 percent), three had IABPA after induction of general anesthesia. Inotropic support and duration of stay both in intensive care and in the hospital were less than in similar patients treated before the use of IABPA.

Selective coronary arteriography.

A series of 414 selective coronary arteriographies in 322 patients has been done at Ullevål Hospital from May 1971 to Jan. 1974. Judkins technique was used in all cases. The indications for arteriography, the diagnoses as regards the coronary arteries, the therapeutic consequences,and the complications of selective coronary arteriography are described.

Iopamidol in cardioangiography: a retrospective, multicenter study. Part I. Adult patients.

To evaluate the occurrence of complications during diagnostic or interventional catheterization a retrospective analysis of catheterization procedures in 12 Italian laboratories using the nonionic contrast medium (CM) iopamidol (370 mgI/ml) was performed. Data obtained on 26,219 patients greater than or equal to 14 years are presented. The overall complication rate was 1.89% (485/26,219). The overall mortality rate was 0.1% (27/26,219). Procedure related complications were 389 (1.48%) and CM related complications were 106 (0.4%). No death was attributed to CM. Ventricular fibrillation (VF) rate was 0.11% comparable to the low rate observed with nonionic CM in other studies and less than the rate observed in surveys concerning the use of ionic CM. Fifty-seven thrombotic events were recorded (0.22%), a rate comparable with other surveys with ionic and nonionic CM. The total complication rate (6.1%), the rates of coronary occlusion (1.34%), myocardial infarction (0.37%) and urgent coronary artery by-pass grafting (0.5%) in 1,348 coronary angioplasties were lower than those recorded in previous surveys. These data confirm a good tolerability and no increased risk of VF and thrombotic events with iopamidol in cardiac catheterization.

Iopamidol in cardioangiography: a retrospective, multicentre study. Part II. Paediatric patients.

To evaluate the complication rate in paediatric cardioangiography with the nonionic contrast medium iopamidol data on 8,166 procedures were retrospectively collected in 12 centres. The overall complication rate was 3.78% (309/8,166). 3.44% were related to the procedure, and 0.34% to the contrast medium. The mortality rate varied with age. It was higher in patients less than 2 months (0.38%) than in patients greater than 2 months-2 years (0.06%) and in patients older than 2 years (0.03%). The total complication rate was higher than the one observed in a similar retrospective analysis performed in adult patients (1.89%). This difference is probably due to higher risk conditions of the younger patients. However the contrast medium related complication rate (0.34% vs 0.4%) and the mortality rate (0.11% vs 0.1%) were comparable, confirming the good tolerability of iopamidol in cardiac catheterisation also in paediatric patients.

Hypernatraemia--special problems with angiocardiography in total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage.

Two children with unobstructed total anomalous pulmonary venous drainage and hyperkinetic pulmonary hypertension deteriorated with pulmonary oedema and cerebral symptoms following angiocardiography using large amounts of contrast medium. One patient died. The dangers of this with resultant hypernatraemia are discussed.

Coronary arteriography: prevention of thromboembolic complications using a pressure-drip flushing technique.

All selective coronary arteriographic examinations (1,833) performed in the authors' laboratory during a five-year period (1/1/70 to 12/31/74) were analyzed for mortality and total morbidity according to method used. During the first two years, the control period, the classic brachial artery cutdown (Sones) and percutaneous femoral artery puncture (Judkins) techniques were utilized. Mortality rate for the total 589 patients was 1.01%. This included a mortality of 0.26% (1/386) for the brachial arteriotomy method, and 2.5% (5/203) for the percutaneous femoral puncture approach. After introduction of the pressure-drip flushing technique, the subsequent three-year mortality rate for a total of 1,244 patients was 0.16%. This included an incidence of 0.17% (1/585) for brachial arteriotomy and 0.15% (1/659) for modified percutaneous puncture techniques. The morbidity incidence during the initial two-year period was 3.0% (18/589). This included an incidence of 2.0% for brachial arteriotomy and 5.0% for percutaneous puncture techniques. After institution of the new pressure-drip flushing technique the total incidence fell to 1.2% equally divided between arteriotomy and percutaneous techniques. Modification of the classic percutaneous femoral artery puncture techniques has resulted in major reduction of mortality and morbidity complications which are chiefly thromboembolic in nature. It has not significantly influenced local thrombotic complications of arteriotomy.

[Hazards of heart catheterization and angiocardiography in the first year of life. A review of 1366 examinations]. / Das Risiko der Herzkatheterisierung und Angiokardiographie im ersten Lebensjahr. Ein Uberblick über 1366 Untersuchungen

1366 infants in the first year of life had cardiac catheterisation with or without angiocardiography in our Department of Cardiology between 1963 and 1973. The overally mortality in the first 24 hrs after the cardiac catheterisation for the first year of life was 1.83%. The subdivision of the first month of life reveals the high mortality rate of the first two weeks of life with the highest percentage of 18.9% in the first week of life and with 10.7% in the second week of life. After that time the mortality is significantly decreasing, but still amounts to 7.6% in the first month of life. There had been no death after the seventh month of life. 14 of the 24 infants died without a specific event in increasing heartfailure and/or acidosis. In the other 10 cases death was due either to the manipulation of the catheter (partial-perforation or perforation), to the angiocardiogram (subsequent asystole) or to the position of the catheter with subsequent intramural injection of contrast material.The best correlation was between the mortality and the severity of the underlying cardiac malformation. Further complications which did lead to death 24 hrs following cardiac catheterisation are described. Our results are compared with those of other authors. The reasons of various complications are discussed. Cardiac catheterisation and angiocardiography as early as possible is necessary because palliative procedures and corrective surgery can be initiated immediately. But it is important in the very sick infant to shorten the procedure as much as possible and to keep angiographic injections at a minimum.