Disturbances of the Heart Part 10

CARDIAC DRUGS

Whether any drug should be used which acts directly on the heart is often a question for decision. As endocarditis is generally secondary to some acute disease, the patient has become weakened already, and the circulation is not st.u.r.dy; therefore such a drug as aconite is probably never indicated. The necessary diminished diet, catharsis, hypnotic, salicylic acid and alkalies all tend to quiet the circulation and diminish any strenuosity of the heart that may be present. Unfortunately, during fever processes, digitalis in ordinary doses rarely slows the heart; and while it might slow the heart if given in large doses, it would also cause too powerful contractions of the ventricles. Digitalis is inadvisable if there is much endocardial inflammation, and especially if there is supposed or presumed to be acute myocardial inflammation. If a patient had already valvular disease from a previous endocarditis, and during this attack insufficiency of the heart was evidenced by pendent edemas, digitalis Should be administered; but it probably should not be given to other patients during the acute period of inflammation.

BATHS

During rheumatism the peripheral blood vessels are generally dilated and the skin perspires profusely. This is caused not only by the rheumatism, but also by the salicylates. The surface of the body should be sponged with cold, lukewarm or hot water, depending on the temperature, especially of the skin. The cold water will reduce the temperature and tone the peripheral blood vessels; the hot water, if the temperature is low and the skin moist and flabby, will cleanse it and also tone the peripheral blood vessels. If the blood vessels are dilated and the perspiration profuse, atropin is indicated, both as a cardiac stimulant and contractor of the blood vessels and as a preventer of too profuse sweating. The dose should be from 1/200 to 1/100 grain for an adult, given two or three times in twenty-four hours, depending on its action and the indications. It should be remembered that atropin is not a sleep-producer; it may stimulate the cerebrum. Therefore at night it might well be combined with a possible necessary hypodermic injection of morphin.

STRYCHNIN

The question of the advisability of strychnin is a constant subject for discussion. Strychnin is overused in the cases of most patients who are seriously ill. In a patient in whom we are trying to cause nervous and muscular rest, strychnin is certainly contraindicated.

On the other hand, if the heart is acting sluggishly, the peripheral circulation is imperfect, and atropin is not acting well, it is advisable to give strychnin in a dose not too large and not too frequently repeated. Strychnin should be avoided, if possible, in the evening in order that the patient may sleep. Whether it should be given by the mouth or hypodermically would depend entirely on the seriousness of the condition. Once in six hours is generally often enough for strychnin to be administered unless the dose is very small.

ALCOHOL

It is rarely, if ever, advisable to use alcohol. In certain instances, however, especially in older patients who are accustomed to alcohol, a little whisky administered several times a day may act only for good, both as a food and as a peripheral dilator. But it must be remembered that alcohol is not a cardiac stimulant, and that a large dose will be followed by more cardiac depression.

Nitroglycerin may act as well as whisky in the kind of cases mentioned. Caffein stimulation in any form is generally inadvisable during inflammation of the heart.

PROGNOSIS AND CONVALESCENCE

The duration of acute endocarditis varies greatly; it may be two or three weeks, or the inflammation may become subacute and last for several months. Although mild endocarditis rarely causes death of itself, it may develop into an ulcerative endocarditis, and then be serious per se. On the other hand, it may add its last quota of disability to a patient already seriously ill, and death may occur from the combination of disturbances. As soon as all acute symptoms have ceased, rheumatic or otherwise, and the temperature is normal, the amount of food should be increased; the strongly acting drugs should be stopped; the alkalies, especially, should not be given too long, and the salicylates should be given only intermittently, if at all; iron should be continued, ma.s.sage should be started, and iodid should be administered, best in the form of the sodium iodid, from 0.1 to 0.2 gm. (1 1/2 to 3 grains), twice in twenty-four hours, with the belief that it does some good toward promoting the resorption of the endocardial inflammatory products and can never do any harm.

Prolonged bed rest must be continued, visitors must still be proscribed, long conversations must not be allowed, and the return to active mental and physical life must be most deliberate.

No clinician could state the extent to which the valvular inflammation will improve or how much disability of the valves must be permanent. It is even stated by some clinicians that a rest in bed for three months is advisable. While this is of course excessive, certainly, when the future health and ability of the patient are under consideration, and especially when the patient is a child or an adolescent, time is no object compared with the future welfare of the person's heart. It is one of the greatest pleasures of a the clinician to note such a previously inflamed heart gradually diminish in size and the murmurs at the valves affected gradually disappear. Although they may have disappeared while the patient is in bed, he is not safe from the occurrence of a valvular lesion for several months after he is up and about.

While the discussion of hygiene would naturally be confined to the hygiene of the disease of which the endocarditis is a complication, still the hygiene of its most frequent cause, rheumatism, should be referred to. Fresh air and plenty of it, and dry air if possible, is what is needed in rheumatism, and a shut-up, over-heated and especially a damp room will continue rheumatism indefinitely. It is almost as serious for rheumatism as it is for pneumonia. Sunlight and the action of the sun's rays in a rheumatic patient's bedroom are essential, if possibly obtainable.

As so many rheumatic germs are absorbed from diseased or inflamed tonsils or from other parts of the mouth and throat, proper gargling or swashing of the mouth and throat should be continued as much as possible, even during an endocarditis. The prevention of mouth infections will be the prevention of rheumatism and of endocarditis.

MALIGNANT ENDOCARDITIS: ULCERATIVE ENDOCARDITIS

Since we have learned that bacteria are probably at the bottom of almost any endocarditis, the terms suggested under the cla.s.sification of endocarditis as "mild" and "malignant" really represent a better understanding of this disease. They are not separate ent.i.ties, and a mild endocarditis may become an ulcerative endocarditis with malignant symptoms. On the other hand, malignant endocarditis may apparently develop de novo. Still, if the cause is carefully sought there will generally be found a source of infection, a septic process somewhere, possibly a gonorrhea, a septic tonsil or even a pyorrhea alveolaris. Septic uterine disturbances have long been known to be a source of this disease.

Meningitis, pneumonia, diphtheria, typhoid fever and rarely rheumatism may all cause this severe form of endocarditis.

Ulcerative endocarditis was first described by Kirkes in 1851, was later shown to be a distinctive type of endocarditis by Charcot and Virchow, and finally was thoroughly described by Osler in 1885.

Ulcerative endocarditis was for a long time believed to be inevitably fatal; it is now known that a small proportion of patients with this disease recover. Children occasionally suffer from it, but it is generally a disease of middle adult life. Ch.o.r.ea may bear an apparent causal relation to it in rare instances.

Ulcerative endocarditis may develop on a mild endocarditis, with disintegration of tissue and deep points of erosion, and there may be little pockets of pus or little abscesses in the muscle tissue.

If such a process advances far, of course the prognosis is absolutely dire. If the ulcerations, though formed, soon begin to heal, especially in rheumatism, the prognosis may be good, as far as the immediate future is concerned. If the process becomes septic, or if there is a serious septic reason for the endocarditis, the outlook is hopeless. This form of endocarditis is generally accompanied by a bacteremia, and the causative germs may be recovered from the blood. One of the most frequent is the Streptococcus viridans.

DIAGNOSIS

If a more malignant form of endocarditis develops on a mild endocarditis, the diagnosis is generally not difficult. If, without a definite known septic process, malignant endocarditis develops, localized symptoms of heart disturbance and cardiac signs may be very indefinite.

If there is no previous disease with fever, the temperature from this endocarditis is generally intermittent, accompanied by chills, with high rises of temperature, even with a return to normal temperature at times. There may be prostration and profuse sweats.

Even without emboli there may be meningeal symptoms: headache, restlessness, delirium, dislike of light and noise, and stupor; even convulsions may occur. The urine generally soon shows alb.u.min; there may be joint pains; the spleen is enlarged and the liver congested.

Some definite cardiac symptoms are soon in evidence, with more or less progressive cardiac weakness. Occasionally there are no symptoms other than the cardiac.

Characteristic of this inflammation is the development of ecchymotic spots on the surface of the body, especially on the feet and lower extremities. Sooner or later, in most instances of the severe form of this disease, emboli from the ulcerations in the heart reach the different organs of the body, and of course the symptoms will depend on the place in which the emboli locate. If in the abdomen, there are colicky pains with disturbances, depending on the organs affected; if in the brain, there may be paralysis, more or less complete. In all infaret occurs in one of the organs of the body there must of necessity occur a necrosis of the part and an added focus of infection. If a peripheral artery is plugged, gangrene of the part will generally occur, if the patient lives long enough.

TREATMENT

If pneumonia or gonorrhea is supposed to be the cause of the endocarditis, injections of stock vaccines should perhaps be used.

If the form of sepsis is not determinable, streptococcic or staphylococcic vaccines might be administered. It is still a question whether such "shotgun" medication with bacteria is advisable. Patients recover at times from almost anything, and the interpretation of the success of such injection treatment is difficult. Exactly how much harm such injections of unnecessary vaccines can produce in a patient is a question that has not been definitely decided. Theoretically an autogenous vaccine is the only vaccine which should be successful. The vaccine treatment of ulcerative endocarditis was not shown to be very successful by Dr.

Frank Billings [Footnote: Billings, Frank: Chronic Infectious Endocarditis, Arch. Int. Med., November, 1909, p. 409.] in his investigation, and more recent treatment of this disease, when caused by the Streptococcus viridons, by antogenous vaccines has confirmed his opinion.

Other treatment of malignant endocarditis includes treatment of the condition which caused it plus treatment of "mild" endocarditis, as previously described, with meeting of all other indications as they occur. As in all septic processes, the nutrition must be pushed to the full extent to which it can be tolerated by the patient, namely, small amounts of a nutritious, varied diet given at three-hour intervals.

Whether milk or any other substance containing lime makes fibrin deposits on the ulcerative surfaces more likely or more profuse, and therefore emboli more liable to occur, is perhaps an undeterminable question. In instances in which hemorrhages so frequently occur, as they do in this form of endocarditis, calcium is theoretically of benefit. Quinin has not been shown to be of value, and salicylic acid is rarely of value unless the cause is rheumatism.

Alcohol has been used in large doses, as it has been so frequently used in all septic processes. If the patient is unable to take nourishment in any amount, small doses of alcohol may be of benefit.

It is probably of no other value. It is doubtful whether ammonium carbonate tends to prevent fibrin deposits or clots in the heart, as so long supposed. In fact, whenever the nutrition is low and the patient is likely to have cerebral irritation from acidemia, whenever the kidneys are affected, or whenever a disease may tend to cause irritation of the brain and convulsions, it is doubtful if ammonium carbonate or aromatic spirit of ammonia is ever indicated.

Ammonium compounds have been shown to be a cause of cerebral irritation. Salvarsan has not been proved of value.

Intestinal antisepsis may be attained more or less successfully by the administration of yeast or of lactic acid ferments together with suitable diet. The nuclein of yeast may be of some value in promoting a leukocytosis. It has not been shown, however, that the polymorphonuclear leukocyte increase caused by nuclein has made phagocytosis more active.

Malignant endocarditis may prove fatal in a few days, or may continue in a slow subacute process for weeks or even months.

CHRONIC ENDOCARDITIS

It is not easy to decide just whew all acute endocarditis has entirely subsided and a chronic, slow-going inflammation is subst.i.tuted. It would perhaps be better to consider a slow-going inflammatory process subsequent to acute endocarditis as a subacute endocarditis; and an infective process may persist in the endocardium, especially in the region of the valves, for many weeks or perhaps months, with some fever, occasional chills, gradually increasing valvular lesions and more or less general debility and systemic symptoms. Such a subacute endocarditis may develop insidiously on a previously presumably healed endocardial lesion and cause symptoms which would not be a.s.sociated with the heart, if an examination were not made. Sometimes such a slow-going inflammatory process will be a.s.sociated with irregular and intangible chest pains, with some cough or with many symptoms referred to the stomach, so that the stomach may be considered the organ which is at fault. There may be dizziness, headache, feelings of faintness, sleeplessness, progressive debility and a persistent cough, with some bronchial irritation and with occasional expectoration of streaks of blood, which may cause the diagnosis of incipient tuberculosis to be made. The need of a careful general examination must be emphasized again before a decision is made as to what ails the patient, or before cough mixtures are given unnecessarily, quinin is prescribed for supposed malarial chills, or various diets and digestants are recommended for a supposed gastric disturbance.

The term "chronic endocarditis" should be reserved for a slowly developing sclerosis of the vavles. This may occur in a previous rheumatic heart and in a heart which has suffered endocarditis and has valvular lesions, or it may occur from valvular strain or heart strain from various causes; it is typically a part of the arteriosclerotic process of age, and is then mostly manifested at the aortic valve.

ETIOLOGY

Rheumatism is the cause of most instances of cardiac disease which date back to childhood or youth, while arteriosclerosis and chronic infection cause most cardiac diseases in the adult. In the former case it is the mitral valve which is the most frequently affected, while in the latter it is the aortic valve. Any cause which tends to induce arteriosclerosis may be a cause of chronic endocarditis, such as gout, syphilis, chronic nephritis, alcoholism, excessive use of tobacco, excessive muscular labor and hard athletic work. Lead is also another, now rather infrequent, cause. Severe infections may tend to make not only an arteriosclerosis occur early in life, but also a chronic endocarditis. Heart strain may also be a cause of chronic endocarditis, especially at the aortic valve. Forced marches of soldiers, compet.i.tive athletic feats, and occupations which call for repeated hard physical strain may all cause aortic valve disease. Tobacco, besides increasing the blood tension and thus perhaps injuring the aortic valve, may weaken the heart muscle and cause disturbance and irritation and perhaps inflammation of the mitral valve.

There is no age which is exempt from valvular disease, but the age determines the valve most liable to be affected. If endocarditis occurs in the fetus, it is the right side of the heart that is affected; in children and during adolescence it is most frequently the mitral valve that is involved; while in the adult or in old age it is the aortic valve that is most liable to become diseased.

Statistics have shown that the valves of the left side of the heart are diseased nearly twenty times as frequently as those of the right side of the heart. They also show that the mitral valve is diseased more than one and one-half times as frequently as the aortic valve.

Early in life probably the two s.e.xes are equally affected with valvular disease, with perhaps a slight preponderance among females, because of their greater tendency to ch.o.r.ea. Females also show a greater frequency to mitral stenosis than do males. Aortic disease, on the other hand, from the very fact of their strenuous life and occupations, is nearly three times more frequent in men than in women.

PATHOLOGY

If a chronic endocarditis has followed an acute condition, some slight permanent papillomas or warty growths may he left from the healed granulating or ulcerated surfaces. Sometimes these little elevations on the valves become inflamed and then adhere together, or adhere to the wall of the heart, and thus incapacitate a valve.

Sometimes these excrescences undergo partial fatty degeneration, or may take on calcareous changes and thus stiffen a valve.