1. A questionnaire, modified from Bulpitt & Dollery (1973), inquired about 20 symptoms commonly associated with hypertension or its drug therapy in 1017 subjects (age 30–69 years). Groups consisted of (a) active therapy, (b) placebo, (c) no tablets, and (d) a non-study control group. The response rate was 96% in the first three groups and 92% in group (d).
2. The subjects in groups (a), (b) and (c) constituted part of a placebo-controlled, patient-blind intervention study in the treatment of mild hypertension (The Australian National Blood Pressure Study).
3. After age/sex adjustment of the data, only sleepiness and self-assessed depression were found to be more common in the actively treated group. Impotence, failure of ejaculation and nocturia were age-related symptoms. Generally, complaint rate was higher in females.
4. The knowledge of a mild hypertensive condition or its modern drug therapy lead to very few symptoms in a non-hospital population who already have a fairly high ‘complaint level’.
Fourteen patients with transient bundle-branch block have been personally studied. All but one suffered from ischemic heart disease commonly accompanied by hypertension. The conduction defect was observed to appear during acute infarction, attacks of prolonged chest pain, and episodes of left ventricular failure. Not infrequently, however, the appearance and disappearance of bundle-branch block was unaccompanied by any recognizable change in the patient's physical condition.
Bundle-branch block may revert to normal intraventricular conduction after many years. In one patient bundle-branch block disappeared on three separate occasions after having been present for over 12 months. Another patient is described in whom normal conduction returned after left bundle-branch block had been established for a record duration of 6 years.
The etiology, prognosis, and pathogenesis of transient bundle-branch block have been discussed and the practical importance of this conduction defect in the electrocardiographic diagnosis of myocardial infarction is mentioned.
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