Lovastatin reduced the progression of dilated lesions in men with elective PTCA. Independent of treatment allocation, the dilated lesions regressed and the non-dilated segments progressed during the study follow-up. Four weeks of pre-treatment with lovastatin did not influence the rate of restenosis. Lovastatin had no statistically significant effect on non-dilated segments.

Pyoderma gangraenosum is a rare, chronic type of skin ulceration of unknown aetiology. It occasionally appears following trauma. There are no set standards for the treatment of pyoderma gangraenosum. It is essential to consider acuteness of progression as well as underlying systemic diseases and possible drug side effects before initiating a therapy. Immunosuppressive as well as immunomodulating agents are most often used with varying degrees of success. We report a 45-year-old patient who suffered from an extensive posttraumatic pyoderma gangraenosum after cardiac bypass operation. With short-term combination therapy consisting of high dose intravenous immunoglobulins and systemic corticosteroids, the progression of the disease could be stopped within a few days.

The aim of our study was to determine the prevalence of the factor V mutation (position 1691 G-->A) in patients with angiographically diagnosed coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction and, as a control, in blood donors. This mutation has already been proved to be the main genetic risk factor for venous thrombosis. In order to detect this mutation in exon 10 of the factor V gene we established a microtiter plate based hybridization assay for the specific detection of wild-type and mutant sequences in factor V gene segments, obtained after amplification by polymerase chain reaction. This test enables us to screen a large number of samples. The mutation was detected in 29 of 317 coronary artery disease (CAD) patients (9.1%) and 18 of 190 blood donors (9.5%) investigated. The mean activated protein C resistance ratios were 3.18 and 3.11, with nearly identical distribution. No increased prevalence of the factor V mutation was found in the CAD group. In 10 of 29 CAD patients (35%) with the factor V 1691 G-->A mutation and in 124 of 288 CAD patients without the mutation (43%) there was a history of myocardial infarction. From our data we conclude that there is no increased risk of developing coronary atheroma or consecutive myocardial infarction resulting from the factor V mutation with protein C resistance.

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Im Verlaufe von Operationen mit extrakorporaler Zirkulation, insbesondere in Verbin dung mit Hypothermie wird häufig eine metabolische Azidose beobachtet. Trotz zahlreicher Untersuchungen (s. Übersicht von CLOWES 1960) gibt es jedoch nur wenig quantitative Angaben über die Größe der Azidose und keine über den Einfluß von präoperativen Azidosen auf die intraoperative Azidose sowie über genaue Richtlinien zur intraoperativen Behand lung. Neue schnelle Methoden zur Bestimmung des Säure-Basen-Haushaltes (ANDERSEN, ENGEL, JÖRGENSEN u. ASTRUP 1960) sowie des pO 2 und pCO 2 im Blut (GLEICHMANN u.