Faculty Bibliography

Hyperlipidemia is one of the major modifiable risk factors for coronary heart disease in men and women. There is substantial epidemiological data showing the relationship between elevations in total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, triglycerides and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and coronary heart disease in women. Yet hyperlipidemia is undertreated in women. This may be due to limited data to support intervention for the primary prevention of coronary heart disease, confusion in national guidelines, and inadequate counseling on diet and exercise in clinical practice. Lipid levels should be evaluated in women with established coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, peripheral vascular disease, and diabetes. These women should be targeted for aggressive lipid lowering with diet, exercise, and medication. Women with multiple risk factors and early family history of coronary heart disease should also be evaluated. Asymptomatic young women with elevated or borderline lipids should be counseled with regard to lifestyle and behavioral interventions such as diet and exercise. (c) 2000 by CHF, Inc

This review focuses on innovative directions and recent studies in cardiovascular exercise science. Studies that address the enhancement of the diagnostic and prognostic value of exercise testing, by virtue of electrocardiographic analysis and the integration of exercise tolerance and clinical findings, are reviewed. The roles of exercise electrocardiographic testing in chest pain centers and the epidemiologic and physiologic effects of exercise training are discussed. The impact of exercise training on the angiographic and clinical regression of coronary artery disease and gender differences in exercise testing and training are among the concluding topics

BACKGROUND: The diagnosis of erythema migrans (EM), the characteristic rash of early Lyme borreliosis, is based primarily on its clinical appearance since it often occurs prior to the development of a specific antibody response. Other skin disorders, however, may be confused with EM. METHODS: Between June 1991 and September 1993, a prospective study was conducted at the Lyme Disease Diagnostic Center of the Westchester County Medical Center to isolate Borrelia burgdorferi systematically from patients with Em, and to characterize the clinical manifestations of patients with culture-documented infection. Skin biopsies and/or needle aspirates of the advancing margin of primary lesions, and blood specimens from adult patients were cultured for B burgdorferi in modified Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly medium at 33 degrees C. RESULTS: B burgdorferi was recovered from 79 patients (49 [62%] males) ranging in age from 16 to 76 years old (mean, 43 +/- 14 years old). Maximum EM diameter (mean, 16 +/- 10 cm; range, 6-73 cm) was a function of EM duration (mean 6.7 +/- 6.4 days; range, 1-39 days) (correlation coefficient = 0.7; P < 0.001). Twenty (25%) patients had noted a tick bite at the site of the primary lesion a mean of 10 days (range, 1-27 days) before onset. Multiple EM lesions (range, 2-70) were present in 14 (18%) patients. Systemic symptoms were present at the time of culture in 54 patients (68%) including fatigue (54%), arthralgia (44%), myalgia (44%), headache, (42%), fever and/or chills (39%), stiff neck (35%), and anorexia (26%). Thirty-three patients (42%) had at least one objective finding on physical examination in addition to EM, including 18 (23%) with localized lymphadenopathy, 13 (16%) with fever (t > or = 37.8 degrees C), seven (9%) with tender neck flexion, six (8%) with joint tenderness, and 1 each with joint swelling, nuchal rigidity, and facial nerve palsy. No patient had new electrocardiogram evidence of atrioventricular block. Liver function assays were abnormally elevated in 37% of patients. Thirty-four percent of patients were seropositive by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay at presentation. Most others rapidly seroconverted so that 69 of 78 evaluable patients (88%) were seropositive at some point during the first month after diagnosis. CONCLUSIONS: We describe the largest group of culture-positive patients with EM from the United States to date. Although systemic symptoms were present in most patients, objective evidence of advanced disease was uncommon. Our patients with culture-confirmed EM were less sick than those described in the days before culture confirmation was possible. The ability to isolate B burgdorferi from lesional skin of large numbers of patients with EM should make culture-positive patients the standard by which to define manifestations of early Lyme borreliosis associated with this rash. Microbiologic documentation of Lyme borreliosis will help delineate the manifestations of this illness, and should form the framework for research directed at pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention

As patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) survive their episodes of disease activity, increasing morbidity is shown to be related to chronic cardiovascular complications. The objective of this study was to assess the cardiac parasympathetic autonomic functional status, as reflected by heart rate variability, in SLE patients with and without corticosteroid treatment. A cross-sectional study of SLE patients attending the Arthritis Clinic was done, using age and gender-matched controls. Thirty-four female patients, age 39 +/- 11, were entered, 20 of whom were receiving steroids at the time of study. Time and frequency domain heart rate variability indices were significantly reduced in the SLE groups with and without corticosteroid therapy, as compared to controls. The indices were not, however, significantly different in the two SLE groups

Atrioventricular valve duplication is a rare congenital cardiac anomaly. The anomaly is usually recognized as an incidental finding at autopsy, open heart surgery, or two-dimensional echocardiography. In this article we present the transthoracic and transesophageal presentation of a case of mitral and a case of tricuspid valve duplication. The hemodynamic consideration of the lesions is discussed with a review of the literature. (ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY, Volume 13, January 1996)

We compared standard ST-segment analysis and ST/HR slope analysis of exercise ECG studies with reference to outcome of exercise thallium-201 studies in 341 patients. Sensitivity was significantly better using ST/HR slope compared with standard ST analysis. Specificity was not significantly different

Research has shown that many chest pain patients, without coronary artery disease, may suffer from panic disorder, hypochondriasis, depression, and/or multiple phobias. Some patients with coronary artery disease may also suffer from these disorders and are often unable to return to previous activity. In spite of good prognosis for longevity and acceptable exercise test results, a large proportion of these patients continue to be disabled by chest pain and/or chronic cardiac fears and demand constant medical attention. This study examined the psychiatric and behavioral symptomatology that differentiated four groups of patients experiencing chest pain: the able (active/working patient) with and without coronary artery disease, as determined by exercise thallium-201 studies, and the disabled (inactive/nonworking patient) with and without coronary artery disease. The results of the study indicated that the inactive patients, both with and without heart disease, suffered from a host of debilitating psychiatric conditions

Myositis due to the etiologic agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi, has been reported nine times in the English-language literature; there has been but a single report of exacerbation of dermatomyositis due to B. burgdorferi in a patient with known dermatomyositis. Multiple infectious agents, but not B. burgdorferi, have been hypothesized to trigger dermatomyositis. We report the first case of dermatomyositis that appears to have been triggered by B. burgdorferi. This case involved an individual from Westchester County, NY, who presented with skin lesions suggestive of erythema migrans and who was seropositive for Lyme disease. He soon developed a clinical syndrome suggestive of dermatomyositis: periorbital edema, dysphagia, proximal muscle weakness, and a markedly elevated level of creatine phosphokinase. We also review the clinical presentation and response to treatment of patients with Lyme myositis

Giant cell lichenoid dermatitis is a recently described dermatosis thought to be an unusual lichenoid drug eruption. It is characterized by a generalized, pruritic, papulosquamous eruption sparing palms, soles, face and mucous membranes. Histopathologic findings include areas of epidermal hyperplasia and atrophy with focal vacuolar alteration of the basal layer, exocytosis and cytoid body formation. The dermis contains a band-like, mononuclear cell infiltrate at the dermoepidermal junction with admixed eosinophils, plasma cells and large multinucleate cells. The histologic differential diagnosis includes infectious processes, sarcoidosis, lichen nitidus, lupus erythematosus and lichen planus. We report 3 patients with giant cell lichenoid dermatitis, one of whom was subsequently diagnosed as having sarcoidosis. Because giant cell lichenoid dermatitis may resemble sarcoidosis both clinically and histologically, and because cutaneous sarcoid is often associated with systemic involvement, the diagnosis of sarcoid should be strongly considered in patients with giant cell lichenoid dermatitis.