(1) Records of 52 patients with aortitis syndrome were reviewed. The male to female ratio was 1: 4.2, and the age of the onset averaged 23.6-year-old.
(2) There was a tendency that the lesions of the thoracic and abdominal aorta types involved younger patients than the aortic arch type. The observation of clinical course suggested the distribution of arterial lesions was fixed in the initial period of the disease.
(3) It was speculated that preceding infections, especially nasopharyngeal and pulmonary infections, may facilitate an autoimmune process which has been considered to be related to the development of aortitis syndrome.
(4) The principal arterial changes were stenosis and occlusion, but dilatation or aneurysm formation was found in some cases. The distribution of these lesions was analysed.
(5) The symptoms were classified into the principal symptoms and the accompanying symptoms, and their time relationship was reviewed.
(6) Emphasis was made on the importance of careful palpation of bilateral radial pulses, blood pressure measurement in the both arms and legs and careful auscultation of cardiac and vascular murmurs in the diagnosis of aortitis syndrome. Frequent occurrence of renovascular hypertension and aortic insufficiency associated with aortitis syndrome was pointed out. Ischemic retinal changes were less frequently found than hypertensive changes.
(7) Laboratory data were compared between the cases of active inflammatory stage and those of inactive stage.
(8) Early effects of steriod hormones were evaluated.

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Effects of a single intravenous injection of chondroitin sulfates A and C on coronary atherosclerotic subjects were studied by using an electrocardiogram and measuring thrombus-formation time and prothrombin time. Improvement of ST and T changes after a single intravenous injection of chondroitin sulfate C was observed in coronary atherosclerotic patients with electrocardiographically appreciable ST depression, being associated with the prolongations of thrombus-formation time and of prothrombin time. These effects were more active in chondroitin sulfate C than in chondroitin sulfate A. Possible ameliorating effects of chondroitin sulfates A and C on coronary atherosclerosis were discussed in relation with their anti-thrombogenic properties.

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Clinical effects of the combined administration of amiloride and thiazide were evaluated in 14 cases of edematous diseases and 6 cases of essential hypertension, in comparison with the cases of single administration of thiazide. Combined administration described above reduced potassium excretion, but the effects of the combined administration were not very convincing upon blood pressure. No particular side effects were observed.

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The pulmonary blood volume was measured in the normal and in patients with mild mitral stenosis and coronary heart disease. The pulmonary blood volume in the normal was 360 ml./M.², in the mitral stenosis 440ml./M.² and in the coronary heart disease 374 ml./M.², respectively.
The inhalation of amyl nitrite resulted in an increase in cardiac index (normal +50%, mitral stenosis +23%, coronary heart disease +40%) and a decrease in the peak-to-peak time (normal -35%, mitral stenosis -20%, coronary heart disease -16%) in each group. The pulmonary blood volume after the inhalation did not change significantly in the normal (-7%) and in the mitral stenosis (-7%), and increased significantly in the coronary heart disease group (+19%).
A positive vasodilating effect of amyl nitrite on the pulmonary vasculature was not recognized in this study.

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Responses of the right cervical sympathetic nerve and the systemic arterial pressure to vertebral and carotid embolism were examined in rabbits anesthetized with α-chloralose and the following results were obtained:
(1) Vertebral embolism resulted in a marked rise of blood pressure, while carotid embolism resulted a fall.
(2) Hypertension produced by vertebral embolism was converted to hypotension by carotid embolism, whereas hypotension produced by carotid embolism to hypertension by vertebral embolism.
(3) Hypertension produced by vertebral embolism disappeared on administration of hexamethonium or tetraethyl-ammonium chloride immediately after the rise of blood pressure, whereas it became more marked following the administration of the latter after several minutes indicating increased circulating vasopressor substances. After administration of either hexamethonium or phenoxybenzamine, vertebral embolism caused only a slight rise in blood pressure.
(4) The action potentials of the cervical and renal sympathetic nerves increased usually at the onset of hypertension in vertebral embolism, whereas they decreased at the onset of hypotension in carotid embolism.
In conclusions, the increased sympathetic activity participated in hypertension produced by vertebral embolism, while the decreased sympathetic activity in hypotension produced by carotid embolism. It was supposed that sympathetic function was dominant in the portions supplied by the vertebral arteries, whereas sympathetico-inhibitory function in the portions supplied by the internal carotid arteires.

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The nature of vascular toxic substance (necrotizing substance) in the extracts of clamped rabbit renal cortex was investigated. Analysis of the kidney tissue extracts by means of column chromatography, measurement of ultraviolet absorption, dialysis and heating test revealed that the substance was not renin, but rather a substance with lower molecular weight which was nondialyzable, heat-stable (not destroyed by heating for 10 min. at 100°C). Parenteral administration of this substance, without elevating blood pressure, caused fibrinoid lesions of the small cerebral arteries and arterioles probably due to the increased permeability of the vessel walls, as indicated by the histological changes of the damaged vessels.

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A kinetic study with Na²⁴ was made to determine the changes in various compartments after infusion of hypertonic saline. The main change caused by the hypertonic saline loading is the expansion of the functional extracellular space. The relatively slowly exchanging pools including the intracellular space did not appear to change significantly. This is in accord with the previous result of simulation study that the increase in intracellular sodium concentration was small after hypertonic saline loading in the two-compartments model. It is concluded that the kinetics of hypertonic saline loading can be well approximated by a single capacitive system.

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Adaline was applied to select automatically the characteristics of the vectorcardiographic configuration of various conditions, taking vectorcardiograms from 114 cases by Frank's method. Among the 28 parameters, those showing a larger weight were selected. Some selected parameters were found to be relatively common for differentiation of pairs of various conditions and other parameters rather specific.
In addition, an attempt was made to decrease the number of parameters without changing the accuracy significantly. For some differentiations only several parameters were sufficient, but for others it can be decreased to less than half only with difficulty.

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The genesis of IRBBB pattern was studied by incising subdivisions of the right bundle branch in 23 anesthetized dogs. The excised heart, perfused with Tyrode's solution using Langendorff's technique, was placed within a simplified model of the human torso. This procedure greatly improves vision, offering a completely unimpeded direct view of the right ventricular cavity during the incising procedure and provides a superior method for recording electro- and vectorcardiograms.
The QRS duration was not significantly prolonged by incising any of the subdivisions. After incising the lateral subdivision, the QRS pattern showing a prominent R' wave in Lead V₁ occurred in 35% of the cases; the QRS pattern showing rather deep or deep S waves in almost all the precordial leads occurred in 47%; and in 18% there were no characteristic pattern changes.
The midportion of the basal region of the right ventricle was confirmed to be the region which exhibits a significant delay in activation after incising the lateral subdivision.
This experimental study suggests that damage to the lateral subdivision of the right bundle branch, (i.e., so-called false tendons), may be an underlying factor in the production of IRBBB pattern.

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An instance of markedly irregular sinus arrhythmia associated with acute diaphragmatic myocardial infarction has been described. It is quite unusual to observe an extreme sinus arrhythmia in an adult without the intervention of A-V nodal or ventricular escape rhythm.
The influence of digitalis, reserpine, guanethidine and morphine in relation to such cardiac arrhythmia has been discussed.
Sinus arrhythmia and/or sinus bradycardia are usually transient and require no treatment unless cardiac output is compromised. This arrhythmia may be mistaken for more serious arrhythmias such as A-V block, S-A block and sinus arrest because of marked irregularity with slowing of the heart rate.

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A patient with complete heart block is described who developed a Stokes Adams attack due to transient ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation. The probable mechanism of the ventricular arrhythmia is discussed.

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A patient with acute bacterial endocarditis underwent successful aortic valve replacement because of progressive severe heart failure which was intractable to medical management. At surgery, a perforated aortic valve was excised and a Starr-Edwards prosthesis was inserted.

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