COOPERATIVE CLINICAL STUDIES IN THE TREATMENT OF SYPHILIS: CARDIOVASCULAR SYPHILIS

Abstract

Probably no syphilitic involvement of the human body is more frequently overlooked than that of the cardiovascular system. Of all types, uncomplicated syphilitic aortitis undoubtedly is the most frequently ignored. This is due, to some extent, to a longer or shorter silent period of the disease and also to insufficient attention on the part of the physician to premonitory signs and symptoms. As one of us¹recently said: "The medical students crowd about the cor bovinum and the hat-box aneurysm; they observe with enthusiasm the thrill, the buzzing and whirring, the heave, the sound of the pistol shot. Seldom indeed does one find an equal degree of absorption or an equal frequency of demonstration of the still, small signs and symptoms of the preventable onset of syphilitic cardiovascular disease." Many pathologists, among them Langer,²Guldberg³and Warthin,⁴have emphasized the high percentage of syphilitic involvement of