COOPERATIVE CLINICAL STUDIES IN THE TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS: CARDIOVASCULAR SYPHILIS

Abstract

One of the gravest cardiovascular complications of syphilis is that of aortic regurgitation. A complicating aortitis is always present; occasionally an aneurysm accompanies the picture, and all too often there is secondary myocarditis or congestive heart failure. The tendency in the United States seems to be to put even a graver prognosis on this disease than is done in England. Scott¹estimated the duration of life for patients with untreated aortic regurgitation at from one to two years from the onset of symptoms. On the other hand, Moore and his co-workers,²in their recent report of statistics, gave the average duration of life from the onset of symptoms to death or the last observation as thirty months with little or no treatment administered, while the time was increased to sixty-four months with adequate treatment of more than one year. In the first paper of this series on cardiovascular