A double-blind study with control was done to assess the effect of mono-amine-oxidase inhibitors and anticoagulant therapy in the mortality of acute myocardial infarction, in the first 4 weeks. The results show that no effect whether beneficial or adverse was seen with the use of monoamine inhibitor. On the other hand, there is a distinct decrease in mortality amongst cases not on anticoagulants. It is believed that the rarity of phlebothrombosis in local patients is the cause of the difference between local and foreign results so far as anticoagulant therapy goes. It is postulated too that one of the reasons for the difference may be due to the fact that patients are not on so strict a bed rest as elsewhere. There appears to be a definite increase of incidence in Indians, and also at least a third of myocardial infarction cases had low normal serum cholesterol readings.
The evidence presented by the nine cases described in this paper indicates that primary arteritis of the aorta is a single clinico-pathological entity of which Takayashu's syndrome is a part. Different segments of the aorta may be affected resulting in a variety of symptom complexes. In this series, the mode of presentation was hypertension consequent on renal artery stenosis. Early diagnosis is important and surgical treatment is indicated to relieve the hypertension which carries an immediately serious prognosis.
The pattern and incidence of cardiovascular disease was studied in a general practice in an urban-rural area in the west coast of West Malaysia. Hypertension, rheumatic heart disease and congenital heart disease accounted for 85% of the 476 patients with evidence of cardiovascular disease. Ischaemic heart disease, arteriosclerotic heart disease and other conditions accounted for the rest. Emphasis is laid on the salient features of incidence in general practice. Comparison is made with previous clinical and pathological studies from this region.
Study site: General practjce clinic, Telok Anson [Teluk Intan], District of Lower Perak, Malaysia
One hundred and thirty-two newly diagnosed Asian diabetic patients (39 Malay, 30 Chinese and 63 Indians) have been studied in Kuala Lumpur. The highest proportion of diabetic patients were Indian and the lowest were Chinese. Vascular complications were equally common in Asian diabetic patients as in Europeans; coronary heart disease was relatively more common in Indians and cerebral vascular disease in Chinese. Twenty percent of all Asian diabetic patients requiring admission to hospital also had coronary heart disease, 9% had cerebral vascular disease and 8% had gangrene or ulceration of the feet. In Kuala Lumpur, diabetes is a very important risk factor for coronary heart disease: 17% of all patients admitted to the General Hospital with coronary heart disease were already diabetic.