The prognosis for 115 rheumatic fever patients subsequently receiving regular intramuscular penicillin prophylaxis for at least 5 years was studied. Average follow-up was 9.3 years, and 57 patients were followed for 10 years or longer. Of the 79 patients with acute mitral regurgitation, 70% lost their murmur from 4 days to 8.5 years after it was first heard. This is in contrast to those with acute aortic regurgitation which persisted in 73%. No patient developed mitral or aortic stenosis: this suggests that regular prophylaxis may prevent the development of stenosis. Congestive failure, cardiomegaly, and arrhythmia correlated closely with persistence of murmurs, but increased P-R interval, acute QRS or T-voltage variation or both, and ST-T abnormalities did not.
The short- and long-term results of effective surgical repair of coarctation of the aorta on left ventricular mass and function in 48 patients were evaluated using echocardiography and stress-gated radionuclide angiography. Thirty-two of the 48 patients who had no additional cardiac problems and had technically adequate radionuclide angiograms form the basis for this report. Among these, three had mild systolic hypertension and none had significant aortic valve dysfunction. Age at the time of study ranged from 6.5 to 59 years (mean 27). Age at the time of surgery ranged from 3 months to 34 years (mean 12 years). Duration from surgery to the time of noninvasive study ranged from 2 to 29 years (mean 15). In the 32 patients, left ventricular mass was 120 +/- 20 g/m2, compared with a control value of 87 +/- 10 g/m2. Mean left ventricular ejection fraction was elevated to 69.2 +/- 1.6% at rest (control 60 +/- 1.3%) and 78.8 +/- 1.3% during exercise (control 70 +/- 1.7%) (p less than 0.01). The systolic ejection rate was significantly increased (p less than 0.01) and end-systolic volume significantly decreased (p less than 0.01) compared with values in control patients. There was no correlation between ejection fraction and either age at the time of surgery or years since surgery. These findings of hyperdynamic left ventricular function and increased left ventricular mass without apparent cause many years after coarctation repair raise important questions as to mechanisms, extension to other forms of afterload stress that have been surgically or medically relieved and long-term outcome.
In this retrospective study, we reviewed the records of patients who had coarctectomies at the University of Virginia Hospital after 1 year of age. Follow-up data for 5 years or more after surgery were available for 52 patients. Data from 23 similar patients from the Medical College of Virginia brought the total postoperative sample size to 75. The blood pressure of this group of patients did not differ significantly from that of the population at large. We conclude that successful repair of coarctation of the aorta in childhood or early adolescence does not lead to a higher-than-expected incidence of resting hypertension in childhood.
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