The Pulmonary and Systemic Circulations in Congenital Heart Disease

Studies in Mitral Stenosis

“…If we assume a normal value for adults of 700 dynes cm.-5 (Deucher and Knebel, 1952), it agrees well with the means of 740 and 792 for Classes II and III respectively. In Class IV with the exception of one patient (Case 45) the elasticity resistance was always above 1000 dynes cm.-5 , and in one basal patient without pulmonary incompetence a figure of 4945 was obtained.…”

Results of Pulmonary Valvotomy and Infundibular Resection in 100 Cases of Fallot's Tetralogy

“…The systemic flow is on the average unchanged. This is as one would expect, for in most forms of congenital heart disease the systemic blood pressure and flow appear to be maintained near normal and to be independent of changes in the pulmonary circulation (Deuchar and Knebel, 1952). The average pulmonary flow, on the other hand, is increased from 3.1 to 4.9 litres.…”

Extensibility of the pulmonary trunk in heart disease.

“…There have been some estimations of the volume distensibility of the pulmonary arterial tree. Using the "Windkessel" formula, Deuchar and Knebel (1952) estimated that, in two adult patients with a ventricular septal defect and pulmonary hypertension, the coefficients of distensibility were less than normal. Using a similar technique, Lasser and Amram (1956) found that in patients with mitral stenosis the average value for the distensibility was less than the average normal value though there was considerable overlap of the two ranges.…”