Exercise-induced abnormalities of regional cardiac wall motion were assessed by modified cardiokymography (m-CKG) during the course of submaximal exercise test by bicycle-ergometer in 48 patients, who previously underwent coronary angiography and in 8 healthy men, who did not undergo coronary angiography.
Out of 48 patients, 26 were divided into significant angiographic coronary stenosis group (≥50%) and 22 were divided into no significant coronary stenosis group (<50%).
In all of the 8 healthy men, modified cardiokymogram exhibited uniform inward motion during systole both before exercise-test and after exercise-test. When modified cardiokymogram revealed systolic inward motion, we judged m-CKG stress test positive, and when modified cardiokymogram revealed systolic outward motion, we judged m-CKG stress test negative in 48 patients. Comparison of modified cardiokymogram pattern between m-CKG positive group and m-CKG negative group in 48 patients revealed significant difference (p<0.001). 18 out of the 26 patients with significant angiographic coronary stenosis developed 0.1mV ST segment depression (ECG sensitivity 69.2%) and 20 out of the 26 patients developed abnormal systolic outward motion by m-GKG (m-CKG sensitivity 76.9%). Among the 22 patients without significant angiographic coronary stenosis, 17 had negative ECG stress test (ECG specificity 77.3%) and 11 had normally sustained systolic inward motion by m-CKD (m-CKG specificity 50.0%). The combination of ECG and m-CKG improved the diagnostic sensitivity (84.6%) and the diagnostic specificity (81.8%).
We concluded that concordant ECG and m-CKG interpretations improves the diagnostic accuracy of stress testing for detection of coronary heart disease rather than ECG stress test alone.

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Crystalline cholesterol was administered, 750mg/day for 2 weeks to the patients of ischemic heart disease (IHD) (N=15; Age: 53±8). The changes of plasma lipoproteins in response to cholesterol load were compared with the changes in control (N=23; Age: 25±6) and aged (N=18; Age: 74±8) groups.
Plasma HDL and HDL₂ cholesterol levels were significantly lower in IHD before cholesterol load than in other two groups. Plasma VLDL, LDL, HDL, HDL₂ and HDL₃ cholesterol levels did not change significantly on cholesterol load in IHD group because of the wide range of individual responses to cholesterol feeding.
We considered the change of LDL or HDL cholesterol more than 10% of preloading level on 2 weeks' cholesterol load as significant change and frequencies of LDL and HDL changes on cholesterol load were compared among those three groups. LDL increased in 33%, remained unchanged in 53% and decreased in 14% and HDL increased in 7%, remained unchanged in 66% and decreased in 27% on 2 weeks' cholesterol feeding in IHD group. LDL increased in 35% and in 6% and HDL increased in 52% and in 12% in control and aged groups respectively on cholesterol load. Therefore, the significant increments of LDL chol./HDL chol. ratio was highest in IHD (53%), next in control group (35%) and lowest in aged group (17%).

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An attempt was made to investigate the effect of age on platelet function in diabetics and also the role of platelet on the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy.
For this purpose, platelet adhesiveness, platelet aggregation induced by ADP and plasma β-thromboglobulin (βTG) level have been studied for 156 diabetics with retinopathy, 161 diabetics without retinopathy and 82 normal subjects. The above patients were classified into 3 groups: Young (-40 years), Middle (41-60 years) and Old (61 years-).
The results obtained were summarised as follows: (1) Platelet aggregability in diabetics increased significantly with an increase in age. No significant increase with age was observed in normal subjects. (2) Mean plasma βTG level in normal subjects increased highly significantly with an increase in age. In contrast to this, mean plasma βTG level in diabetics was significantly higher than that in normal subjects in young age group, and was maintained almost constant regardless of age. Difference of mean plasma βTG level between diabetics and normal subjects decreased with an increase in age. (3) Platelet aggregability in diabetics with retinopathy was significantly higher than that in normal subjects belonging to the same age group, who showed almost constant platelet aggregability, but there was no difference in platelet aggregability between diabetics without retinopathy and normal subjects, compared at the same age group. (4) Mean plasma βTG level in diabetics with and without retinopathy was significantly higher than that in normal subjects in young age group. (5) Platelet aggregability and mean plasma βTG level showed no correlationship among severity of retinopathy, type of therapy and level of fasting blood sugar averaged over past 3 months. (6) Newly diagnosed patients have the highest mean plasma βTG level compared with treated diabetics and normal subjects, and their platelet aggregability lied in the normal range. (7) Platelet aggregability increased with duration of diabetes. Patients with duration of diabetes less than 4 years showed high mean plasma βTG level. (8) There was no significant difference in platelet adhesiveness between diabetics and normal subjects and between three age groups of diabetics or normal subjects.
Thus, raised mean plasma βTG level observed in diabetics should be due not only to the vascular injury but also to diabetes mellitus itself, and the increased plasma βTG level may play some role in the genesis of diabetic retinopathy.

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