STUDIES OF THE HEART AND CIRCULATION IN DISEASE; ESTIMATIONS OF BASAL CARDIAC OUTPUT, METABOLISM, HEART SIZE, AND BLOOD PRESSURE IN 235 SUBJECTS

Abstract

The subjects included 31 healthy persons and 204 patients afflicted with diseases not affecting the circulation, hypertension, anemia, hyper-thyroidism, neurocirculatory asthenia, valvular heart disease, cardiac arrhythmia, coronary disease, acute endocarditis and aneurism. Patients who had recovered from congestive heart failure were tested also. Acute cardiac decompensation, advanced pulmonary disease and the febrile diseases were not studied. The results were subjected to statistical analysis: means and standard deviations are given for the results in different disease conditions, correlation coefficients for the different relationships, in normal persons, and patients with normal circulation. The relationship between heart work and heart size holds more closely than those between cardiac output and body surface or wt. In myocardial disease the former does not hold. Therefore it may be of use in the detection of myocardial insufficiency.