Acute Reversible Heart Failure in Africans

Abstract

Sixteen cases of acute reversible heart failure were observed in the native African. On the basis of their responses to dietary and vitamin therapy they were divided into various etiologic groups. The clinical manifestations are described and the relationship of these cases to idiopathic cardiac hypertrophy of Africans is discussed.

Some Aspects of Cardio-vascular Mortality in South Africa

“…The high rate of arteriosclerosis of the cerebral arteries and of hypertension in Africans has been corroborated by other investigators (Becker, 1946;Ordman, 1946;Schwartz, Schamroth, and Seftel, 1958). Among the Africans the rubrics 433 and 434 (functional diseases of the heart, other and unspecified) form a large proportion of cardiovascular deaths, this being in accordance with reports that idiopathic heart disease not due to coronary heart disease is frequently encountered among Africans (Gillanders, 1951;Grusin, 1957;Higginson, Gillanders, and Murray, 1952;Seftel and Susser, 1961;Joint Seminar, Univ. Witwatersrand, 1957).…”

Alcohol and Heart Disease in Ceylon

“…In a critical study of Gillander's nutritional heart disease [14], Shaper [27] stated that all that can be regarded as aetiological factors were that they were African adults with a poor social and economic background. In a later study, Grusin [15] made it quite clear that alcohol could have been in volved in a number of Gillander's cases. Similarly in a large number of cases of cardiomegaly of unknown origin occurring in this country al cohol looms in the background.…”

Nutrition and the Heart

“…As for the portal fibrosis and cirrhosis being nutritional there is genuine doubt as to whether human protein malnutrition is at all a major aetiological factor [Ramalingaswami, 1964]. Furthermore, Shaper [1967] raises the pertinent question of the possible role of alcohol in the Gillander's syndrome, for in a later paper from the same hospital in Johannesburg, Grusin [1957] described a series of cases of 'acute reversible heart failure in Africans' in whom alcoholism was a significant feature and in whom a response to thiamine was obtained in some cases. The relationship between alcohol and heart disease is discussed in a separate chapter in this book.…”