Disturbances of the Heart: Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood PressureOsborne, Oliver T. (Oliver Thomas)
Science
Disturbances of the Heart: Discussion of the Treatment of the Heart in Its Various Disorders, With a Chapter on Blood Pressure
Osborne, Oliver T. (Oliver Thomas)
Blood pressure; Heart -- Diseases
Katzenstein [Footnote: Katzenstein: Deutsch. med. Wehnsehr., April
15, 1915.] finds, after ten years of experience, that the following
test of the heart strength is valuable: He records the blood
pressure and pulse, and then compresses the femoral artery at
Poupart's ligament on the two sides at once. He keeps this pressure
up for from two to two and one-half minutes, and then again takes
the blood pressure. With a sound heart the blood pressure will be
higher and the pulse slower than the previous record taken. If the
blood pressure and pulse beat are not changed, it shows that the
heart is not quite normal, but not actually incompetent. When the
blood pressure is lower and the pulse accelerated, he believes that
there is distinct functional disturbance of the heart and loss of
power, relatively to the change in pressure and the increase of the
pulse rate. He further believes that a heart showing this kind of
weakness should, if possible, not be subjected to general
anesthesia.
Stange [Footnote: Stange: Russk. Vrach, 1914, xiii. 72.] finds that
the cardiac power may be determined by a respiratory test as
follows: The patient should sit comfortably, and take a deep
inspiration; then he should be told to hold his breath, and the
physician compresses the patient's nostrils. As soon as the patient
indicates that he can hold his breath no longer, the number of
seconds is noted. A normal person should hold his breath from thirty
to forty seconds without much subsequent dyspnea, while a patient
with myocardial weakness can hold his breath only from ten to twenty
seconds, and then much temporary dyspnea will follow. Stange does
not find that pulmonary conditions, as tuberculosis, pleurisy or
bronchitis, interfere with this test.
Williamson [Footnote: Williamson: Ant. Jour. Med. Sc., April, 1915,
p. 492.] believes that we cannot determine the heart strength
accurately unless we have some method to note the exact position of
the diaphragm, and he has devised a method which he calls the
teleroentgen method. With this apparatus he finds that a normal
heart responds to exercise within its power by a diminution in size.
The same is true of a good compensating pathologic heart. He thinks
that a heart which does not so respond by reducing its size after
exercise has a damaged muscle, and compensation is more or less
impaired.
Practical conclusions to draw from the foregoing suggestions are:
1. An enlargement of the heart after exercise can be well shown only
by fluoroscopic examination, and then best by some accurate method
of measurement.
2. The blood pressure should be immediately increased by exercise,
and after such exercise should soon return to the normal before the
exercise. If it goes below the normal the heart is weak, or the
exercise was excessive.
3. The pulse rate should increase with exercise, but not
excessively, and should within a reasonable time return to normal.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account