Prevention of Recurrent Systemic Embolism with Anticoagulants in Patients with Rheumatic Heart Disease

Results are reported of long-term anticoagulant treatment in a group of 90 patients with rheumatic heart disease who had systemic embolism. Compared to the reported incidence of recurrent systemic embolism in patients not given anticoagulant drugs, such therapy remarkably lowers the risk of such occurrences. Complications from this treatment in the reported patients were minimal

Blood platelet response to plasma from patients with ischemic heart disease

Blood platelets change shape (from small round spheres to larger spread forms) as they participate in thrombosis. Using an electron microscopic technique, we surveyed 14 patients with both acute and chronic ischemic heart disease; each had increased spread platelet forms (69 +/- 22.2 [standard deviation] percent) when compared with 14 asymptomatic control subjects (P P P Thus a factor existed in the plasma of these patients with ischemic heart disease that caused normal platelets to become spread. Similarly the plasma of some patients with serious noncardiac disease had a comparable effect on normal platelets. Although the identity of this factor is unknown, it is probably unrelated to hormonal or therapeutic influences occurring either during acute infarction or during the stress of serious illness because (1) the effect of the plasma from patients with acute ischemic heart disease was identical to that of patients with chronic ischemic heart disease, and (2) the effect was not present in all patients with serious noncardiac disease.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22135/1/0000564.pd

Consensus statement on the diagnosis of multiple system atrophy

We report the results of a consensus conference on the diagnosis of multiple system atrophy (MSA). We describe the clinical features of the disease, which include four domains: autonomic failure/urinary dysfunction, parkinsonism and cerebellar ataxia, and corticospinal dysfunction. We set criteria to define the relative importance of these features. The diagnosis of possible MSA requires one criterion plus two features from separate domains. The diagnosis of probable MSA requires the criterion for autonomic failure/urinary dysfunction plus poor levodopa responsive parkinsonism or cerebellar ataxia. The diagnosis of definite MSA requires pathological confirmation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41757/1/10286_2006_Article_BF02309628.pd