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Biomedical subjects

W C Roberts

Publications and source records attributed to W C Roberts.

At least 217 records · Page 12Linked to original sources
PubMed1989

Modes of death and types of cardiac diseases in opiate addicts: analysis of 168 necropsy cases.

One hundred sixty-eight opiate addicts, whose hearts were submitted for necropsy study, were examined with prime focus on modes of death and types of cardiac abnormalities. Twenty various modes of death were identified: active infective endocarditis or its consequences in 67 (40%), drug overdose in 39 (24%), coronary artery disease in 14 (8%), pulmonary granulomatosis in 7 (4%) and 15 various diseases (7 cardiac and 8 noncardiac) in the remaining 41 (24%) patients. Of the 168 hearts examined, only 7 (4%) were normal. Although infective endocarditis (active, healed or both) was most common (80 [48%] patients), there was a broad range of other cardiac abnormalities present: cardiomegaly in 114 (68%) (including 22 patients without another cardiac abnormality), coronary artery disease in 35 (21%), acquired valvular heart disease in 16 (10%), myocardial heart disease in 14 (8%) and a congenital cardiac anomaly in 19 (11%). Of the 35 hearts with various coronary artery diseases, 28 had significant (greater than 75%) narrowing of the cross-sectional area of 1 or more of the 4 major (left main, left anterior descending, left circumflex and right) epicardial coronary arteries by atherosclerotic plaque. Of 112 coronary arteries in these 28 hearts, 52 (46%) were significantly narrowed (a mean of 1.9 of the 4 major coronary arteries/patient). In 27 of these 28 cases, each 5-mm segment of the 4 major coronary arteries was examined histologically. Of the 1,435 five-mm segments examined, 189 (13%) were narrowed 76 to 100% in cross-sectional area by plaque; 347 (24%), 51 to 75%; 336 (23%), 26 to 50%; and 563 segments (39%) were narrowed 0 to 25% in cross-sectional area by plaque. The percents of 5-mm segments narrowed 76 to 100% in cross-sectional area were greater in those patients with (128 of 793 [16%]) than without (61 of 642 [9%]) clinical evidence of myocardial ischemia (p = 0.001). In this study a very high frequency of cardiac abnormalities (161 [96%]) was found at necropsy and most deaths (97 [58%]) were related to cardiac disease. Although death was most often due to diseases whose association to opiate addiction is well recognized (such as infective endocarditis, drug overdose and pulmonary granulomatosis from the venous injection of talc), several other modes of death were present. Most prominent among these was coronary artery disease (14 patients [8%]).

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1989

Qualitative and quantitative comparison of amounts of narrowing by atherosclerotic plaques in the major epicardial coronary arteries at necropsy in sudden coronary death, transmural acute myocardial infarction, transmural healed myocardial infarction and unstable angina pectoris.

The amounts of narrowing of the 4 major (left main, left anterior descending, left circumflex and right) epicardial coronary arteries by atherosclerotic plaques were compared in 4 subsets of coronary patients. Of the 129 patients studied at necropsy, an average of 2.7 of the 4 arteries was narrowed greater than 75% in cross-sectional area at some point (0.7/4 in controls), and the group with unstable angina pectoris (3.2/4) had more narrowing than did the groups with sudden coronary death (2.8/4), acute myocardial infarction (2.7/4) and healed myocardial infarction (2.3/4). Each of the 4 major epicardial coronary arteries was divided into 5-mm long segments and a histologic section was prepared and stained by the Movat method of each of the 6,461 segments in the 129 patients and in the 1,849 segments in the 40 control subjects. In the 129 patients, 35% of the 5-mm segments were narrowed 75 to 100% in cross-sectional area (3% in controls) and the group with unstable angina had the highest percent (48%) of segments severely narrowed compared to the groups with sudden coronary death (36%), acute myocardial infarction (34%) and healed myocardial infarction (31%). Thus, of the 4 subsets of patients with fatal coronary artery disease studied at necropsy, those with unstable angina pectoris had the most severe and extensive coronary atherosclerosis.

Angina Pectoris↗
PubMed1989

Infective endocarditis in opiate addicts: analysis of 80 cases studied at necropsy.

Eighty opiate addicts were studied at necropsy. Fifty-nine patients had anatomic evidence of active infective endocarditis (IE); 11 had healed IE; and 10 had both. Of the 80 patients, the first episode of IE involved a single right-sided cardiac valve in 24 patients (30%); both a right- and a left-sided valve in 13 patients (16%); a single left-sided valve in 33 patients (41%); and both left-sided valves in 10 patients (13%). Of the 320 cardiac valves in the 80 patients, 103 were sites of vegetations, an average of 1.3 of the 4 valves. Of the 80 patients, the tricuspid valve was infected in 35 (44%), mitral in 34 (43%), aortic in 32 (40%) and pulmonic in 2 (3%). Of the 103 infected cardiac valves, the infection caused sufficient damage to cause dysfunction in 70 (68%): in 28 (88%) of 32 infected aortic valves; in 22 (63%) of 35 infected tricuspid valves; in 19 (56%) of the 34 infected mitral valves; and in 1 of the 2 infected pulmonic valves. Of the 80 patients, 57 (71%) had sufficient valvular damage to cause valvular dysfunction. Of the 80 patients, gross examination of the valves at necropsy indicated that the infected valve almost certainly had been anatomically normal in 65 patients (81%) and abnormal in 15 patients (19%) before the onset of IE. Of the 65 patients with previously anatomically normal valves, 86 (33%) of their 260 cardiac valves were sites of infection (average 1.3 valves/patient); of the 15 patients with infection superimposed on a previously abnormal valve, the infection in each involved previously abnormal valves (21 in the 15 patients) or 17 (28%) of their 60 cardiac valves were sites of infection (average 1.1 valve/patient). Of the 15 patients with abnormal cardiac valves before the infection, 7 had congenitally bicuspid aortic valves and 8 had diffuse fibrous thickening of the mitral valve typical of rheumatic heart disease with (6 patients) or without (2 patients) diffuse fibrous thickening of tricuspid aortic valves. Of the 80 patients, 42 (53%) died during their first episode of active IE, 17 (21%) underwent operative excision with or without valve replacement during the active IE, and in 21 patients (26%) the first episode of active IE healed. In 10 of the latter 21 patients, active IE recurred and was fatal. A total of 19 patients had cardiac valve excision with or without replacement, 17 during active IE and 2 after healing.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Frequency of rupture of the left ventricular free wall or ventricular septum among necropsy cases of fatal acute myocardial infarction since introduction of coronary care units.

Review of 18 published reports before the widespread use of cardiac care units disclosed that the frequency of rupture of the left ventricular free wall or ventricular septum among necropsy cases of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) ranged from 4 to 24% (mean 8%) (619 of 7,905 cases). The frequency of rupture of the left ventricular free wall or ventricular septum among necropsy patients with fatal AMI studied in this laboratory since 1968 was analyzed. Of 648 such patients, 204 (31%) had rupture of the left ventricular free wall or ventricular septum. Rupture occurred in 171 (40%) of 431 patients without healed myocardial infarcts (grossly visible left ventricular scars), and in 29 (13%) of 217 patients with a healed myocardial infarct (p less than 0.01). Thus, the frequency of rupture of the left ventricular free wall or ventricular septum during AMI appears to have increased substantially since the widespread use of coronary care units. Also, the frequency of rupture is nearly 3 times greater in those in whom rupture occurred during the first AMI compared to those with a previous infarct that healed.

Adult↗