Scientific prognosis of trends in the development of cardiovascular surgery in the socialist countries.

The growing incidence and importance of cardiovascular diseases in a number of countries calls for systematic quest for most efficient methods of treatment, which besides prevention and drug therapy include also surgical treatment. A group of experts from member countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) has worked out a scientific prognosis of trends of the development of cardiovascular surgery, which include surgical treatment of ischaemic heart disease, congenital and acquired heart defects, renovascular hypertension and affection of the aortic arch. The prognosis includes also an estimate of the number of operations which will have to be performed in the mentioned diseases per 1 million inhabitants of the CMEA member countries.

Determinants of the left ventricular function in patients with coronary heart disease: a multivariate approach.

251 patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) and a control group of 32 normal persons were examined with the purpose of establishing the determinants of the left ventricular function and comparing these determinants with the functional significance of coronary stenosis. The subjects were divided into four groups: I--controls; II--patients with normal left ventricular function (EF more than 60%); III--patients with impaired LV function (EF less than 60%) and Group IV--patients with left ventricular aneurysm. Nine parameters were obtained by multivariate discriminant analysis, which characterize and classify the left ventricular function: the ejection fraction (EF), angina pectoris, exercise ECG, left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, mean velocity of circumferential fibre shortening, left ventricular functional index, longitudinal shortening, LV systolic pressure/systolic volume ratio, and coronary index. On the basis of these parameters, all the normal persons, 88% of Group II, 92% of Group III and 72% of Group IV were classified correctly. The study proves that there is a good correlation between the EF and the haemodynamic and angiocardiographic parameters. The complex left ventricular function index facilitates the prognosis of surgical results. Abnormalities in left ventricular function cannot be reliably assessed by the coronary index values alone.