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Biomedical subjects

J McLenachan

Publications and source records attributed to J McLenachan.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

Effect of captopril, an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, in patients with angina pectoris and heart failure.

The effects of captopril and placebo were compared in 18 patients with chronic heart failure and angina pectoris with use of a double-blind crossover trial design. Symptoms were assessed by patient treatment preference, visual analogue scores and nitroglycerin consumption. Exercise performance was assessed using two different treadmill protocols of different work intensity with simultaneous measurement of oxygen consumption and by supine bicycle exercise and simultaneous radionuclide ventriculography. Arrhythmias were assessed by 48 h ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring. Patients generally preferred placebo to captopril, and this appeared to be due to an increase in symptoms of angina with captopril. Treadmill exercise time on a high intensity protocol was shorter with captopril than with placebo; on a low intensity protocol, angina became a more frequent limiting symptom even though overall exercise performance was not changed. The heart rate-blood pressure product was reduced, but largely because of a reduction in blood pressure rather than in heart rate. During supine bicycle exercise, no differences in symptoms, exercise performance, ejection fraction or changes in blood pressure were noted and ventricular arrhythmias were reduced. Captopril does not appear to be clinically useful in alleviating angina pectoris in patients with heart failure, and this effect may be related to a decrease in coronary perfusion pressure. Nonetheless, desirable metabolic effects, a reduction in arrhythmias and potential effects on survival require further study of captopril in patients with both angina and heart failure.

Aged

Angina, ischemia, and effort tolerance with vasodilating beta-blockers.

beta-Blockers are known to suppress exercise-induced ischemia but give rise to such problems as fatigue or dyspnea on effort and also bradycardia. In a series of double-blind, placebo-controlled studies of celiprolol (a cardioselective beta 1-blocker with beta 2-agonist and vasodilatory properties) in patients with hypertension and angina and in normal volunteers, it was found that celiprolol did not produce bradycardia when given in combination with verapamil. Celiprolol did reduce exercise-induced ischemia, but there was no reduction in cardiac output at rest or on exercise compared with placebo. Compared with atenolol, celiprolol produced less dyspnea and fatigue at submaximal levels of exercise. It is concluded that celiprolol possesses certain differences, compared with conventional beta-blockers, that may be of direct clinical benefit.

Adrenergic beta-Antagonists

Left ventricular hypertrophy and mortality in hypertension: an analysis of data from the Glasgow Blood Pressure Clinic.

Three thousand seven hundred and eighty-three patients with non-malignant hypertension attending the Glasgow Blood Pressure Clinic between 1968 and 1983 were followed prospectively for an average of 6.5 years. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was present at the outset in 34.5% of the men, and 12.8% had ST-T changes. The corresponding figures for women were 21.5% and 8.8%. The prevalence of LVH increased with the severity of hypertension and was higher for a given blood pressure level in men than in women. All-cause age-adjusted mortality, expressed as deaths per 1000 patient-years, was 27.6 for men with normal electrocardiographs, 43.2 for men with LVH only (P less than 0.001) and 56.9 for men with LVH and ST-T changes (P less than 0.001). Similar trends were seen in women. The excess risk associated with LVH, with or without ST-T changes, could not be explained by age, increased blood pressure at referral to the clinic, or smoking habit, when these factors were considered either separately or in combination (regression analysis). Thus, our study demonstrates that LVH, with or without ST-T changes is an independent risk factor for mortality in hypertensive patients.

Age Factors

Novel exercise protocol suitable for use on a treadmill or a bicycle ergometer.

Many exercise protocols are in use in clinical cardiology, but no single test is applicable to the wide range of patients' exercise capacity. A new protocol was devised that starts at a low workload and increases by 15% of the previous workload every minute. This is the first protocol to be based on exponential rather than linear increments in workload. The new protocol (standardised exponential exercise protocol, STEEP) is suitable for use on either a treadmill or a bicycle ergometer. This protocol was compared with standard protocols in 30 healthy male volunteers, each of whom performed four exercise tests: the STEEP treadmill and bicycle protocols, a modified Bruce treadmill protocol, and a 20 W/min bicycle protocol. During the two STEEP tests the subjects' oxygen consumption rose gradually and exponentially and there was close agreement between the bicycle and the treadmill protocols. A higher proportion of subjects completed the treadmill than the bicycle protocol. Submaximal heart rates were slightly higher during the bicycle test. The STEEP protocol took less time than the modified Bruce treadmill protocol, which tended to produce plateaux in oxygen consumption during the early stages. The 20 W/min bicycle protocol does not take account of subjects' body weight and consequently produced large intersubject variability in oxygen consumption. The STEEP protocol can be used on either a treadmill or a bicycle ergometer and it should be suitable for a wide range of patients.

Adult