1. In an 8-year follow-up of an adult population of 14, 900 persons, age 20 and over who undergo periodic medical examination biennially, atrial fibrillation (AF) was found in 80 cases. The prevalence, with both sexes combined, was 0.5%, and approximately 3.4 times higher in males than in females. The peak prevalence in males was 2.6% in the 60-69 age group, while in females it was 1.7% in the 70+ age group. 2. Onset of AF was seen during the period of observation in 45 cases. Incidence was the highest in males of the 60-69 age group, being 55 cases per 10, 000 population per year. 3. Main associated disease was hypertensive heart disease (HHD) in 42.4%, ischemic heart disease (IHD) in 23.8%, mitral valvular disease (MVD) in 23.8%, thyrotoxic in 3.8%, and unknown in 6.2%. 4. Age of onset was 48.7 years among cases with MVD, 65.2 years among cases with HHD, and 66.8 years for cases with IHD. 5. Prediction of occurrence of AF was attempted using as controls non-AF cases matched by sex, age, and disease with the 43 cases that had developed AF during the period of observation. It was found that the overall estimate of the severity of disturbance of cardiac function is an important factor and that premature atrial contraction has the highest predictive value among
Acute necrotizing eosinophilic myocarditis is characterized by acute onset, fulminant congestive heart failure, and extensive necrosis of myocytes with striking eosinophilic infiltration. However, multinucleated giant cells sometimes appear in the fulminant phase of severe myocarditis. This is the first case of a patient with a 1 year previous history of idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura, who presented with acute necrotizing eosinophilic myocarditis with giant cell infiltration.(Internal Medicine 36: 894-897, 1997)
Tension period, isometric contraction time and ejection time were measured in 20 normal subjects and 72 patients with nonvalvular heart disease to evaluate the usefulness of the duration of left ventricular systoles as an index of the ventricular performance. Left ventricular function could not be manifested with only one of those durations. The ratio of ejection time to isometric contraction time demonstrated a parallelism to changes in left ventricular performance. Serial observations of this ratio offer a convenient detection for the changes in left ventricular per-formance.
