Blood pressure in the finger was measured by a servo-plethysmomanometer constructed after the design of Penàz, which uses the principle of the unloaded arterial wall. The device contains a photoelectric plethysmograph mounted in an inflatable cuff and an electro-pneumatic transducer to control air pressure in the cuff via a servosystem. Comparison of simultaneous measurements of intra-arterial pressure in the brachial artery was performed on 33 patients suspected of having hypertension. In 12 patients evaluation of the technique could not be carried out due to technical failures or distorted blood pressure wave forms. Results of the remaining 21 patients show a mean underestimation of intra-arterial blood pressure by finger cuff blood pressure of 0.8 kPa (6 mm Hg), both for systolic and diastolic levels. The scatter range of the difference is from 1.9 to -3.5 kPa for systolic and 0.1 to -2.5 kPa for diastolic values. It appears that, although not all technical problems are solved, the Penàz servo-plethysmo-manometer is potentially an elegant method by which to arrive at the fully calibrated wave form of blood pressure in a finger in a non-invasive and continuous fashion.

No abstract

Of a total of over 1,000 lung biopsies, carried out over a 3½-year period on patients, the great majority of whom were operated on for various acquired or congenital cardiac diseases, 86 were on patients operated upon for atrial septal defect, 99 on patients with a ventricular septal defect, and 82 on patients with patent ductus arteriosus. The morphological data, particularly with regard to the lung vessels, were correlated with hemodynamic findings in these patients. In atrial septal defect the pulmonary vessels did not differ significantly from those in normal controls of the same ages. Notably there were no differences between patients with relatively low pulmonary arterial flow and those with high flow. In patent ductus arteriosus the only difference was an increase in intimal fibrosis of the pulmonary arteries as compared to normals. In ventricular septal defect, on the other hand, there was an increase in thickness of both media and intima and also in incidence of hemosiderosis. These changes did show a correlation with increased pulmonary arterial pressure but not with pulmonary arterial flow. It is concluded that pulmonary hypertension may provoke these vascular lesions and conversely may be maintained or increased by these lesions, while an increased flow in itself has little or no effect with regard to the morphological alterations, if it is not accompanied by pulmonary hypertension.

A patient with a pseudoaneurysm at the site of the distal anastomosis of a saphenous vein coronary bypass graft is described. The aneurysm was resected. To our knowledge this is the first report of this complication after coronary bypass surgery.