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Our patient is an 18-year-old Caucasian woman from the UK who developed severe mitral stenosis on a history of childhood acute rheumatic fever (ARF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD). She had been reporting of her oral penicillin secondary prophylaxis regimen since diagnosis. At the age of 15 years, a new murmur was discovered during routine cardiac follow-up. An echocardiogram confirmed moderate-severe mitral stenosis. One year later, her exercise tolerance significantly deteriorated and she subsequently underwent balloon valvuloplasty of her mitral valve to good effect. Our case emphasises the evidence base supporting the use of monthly intramuscular penicillin injection to prevent ARF recurrence and RHD progression; it also emphasises the reduced efficacy of oral penicillin prophylaxis in this context. It particularly resonates with regions of low rheumatic fever endemicity. The long-term cardiac sequelae of ARF can be devastating; prescribing the most effective secondary prophylaxis regimen is essential.

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BACKGROUND: Secondary prevention of coronary artery disease is effective in reducing morbitiy and mortality. Our aim was to assess lipid management following non-attendance to a hospital based secondary prevention clinic. METHODS: Data were collected over 5 years on statin usage and total cholesterol levels for patients with coronary artery disease following attendance at a cardiac nurse led outpatient clinic. Lipid levels were taken from a central laboratory database, for both patients discharged from clinic and non-attenders. RESULTS: From 935 inpatients discharged from hospital, 248 (29%) defaulted from outpatient follow up. Lipid lowering drug usage was similar (72% vs. 74% for non-attenders, p=NS). Attenders at the nurse led outpatient clinic were more likely to achieve a total cholesterol <5 mmol/L at discharge than non-attenders (70% vs. 43%; p < 0.001), with a lower mean total cholesterol (4.75 +/- 0.06 mmol/L vs. 5.33 +/- 0.08 mmol/L; p < 0.001). Non-attenders subsequently had a greater number of cholesterol measurements than those who were discharged from the hospital based clinic (range 0-12, c2 23.8 on 12 df p < 0.005). Lipid profiles in hospital non-attenders remained inferior with fewer achieving a total cholesterol <5 mmol/L (61% vs. 78%; p < 0.001), and having greater mean total cholesterol levels (4.85 +/- 0.06 mmol/L vs. 4.52 +/- 0.05 mmol/L; p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Patients defaulting from hospital follow up have higher total cholesterols with fewer at target level compared to attenders. Though non-attenders receive subsequent lipid measurement, inferior lipid profiles persist compared to patients who completed hospital follow up to be discharged. Further implementation strategies are needed with regard to lipid management in this patient group.

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BACKGROUND: Secondary prevention of coronary artery disease is effective in reducing morbidity and mortality, but deficiencies in implementation and prescription bias have been identified. AIM: To assess progress in secondary prevention measures for coronary heart disease and whether there was a difference between patient subgroups with angina, post myocardial infarction or revascularization. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis. METHODS: Between 1997 and 2001, data were collected on prophylactic prescribing, demographic and lifestyle information, at baseline and 1 year following attendance at a hospital-based, cardiac-nurse-led out-patient clinic. RESULTS: Patients (n = 945) were entered into the database at hospital discharge and 619 (72%) attended at 1 year. Aspirin and statin prescribing increased, though ACE inhibitor use was less. Mean total cholesterol at baseline reduced to 4.92 +/- 0.11 mmol/l (p < 0.001) in 2000, with a further reduction to 4.59 +/- 0.08 mmol/l at the 1-year visit in 2001 (p < 0.001). The proportion of patients with total cholesterol < 5 mmol/l increased to 38% in 2000, reaching 70% in 2001. Smokers at baseline were similar at around 30%, although this had reduced to 10% in 2001 (p < 0.001). No change in weight was seen for patients with BMI >or=30 (p = NS). No significant differences were seen between patient subgroups (p = NS). DISCUSSION: Secondary prevention measures are improving, especially in prophylactic prescribing, lipid management and smoking cessation, although scope for further improvement remains. No difference was seen between the patient subgroups. Lifestyle measures need to be addressed to gain maximum benefit in addressing overall cardiovascular risk.

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An unusual case of Cardiobacterium hominis endocarditis involving an aortic homograft valve is presented. Although the patient was young (a 17 year old man) and showed few of the characteristic features of the disease, the report does illustrate a number of the problems associated with this illness and highlights the need for the careful assessment of apparent culture negative endocarditis. The organism itself is susceptible to most antibiotics but further treatment, including surgery, may be necessary. Patients must therefore be examined repeatedly and assessed for haemodynamic deterioration, valve destruction or embolic phenomena. Homograft valve replacement may offer some benefits in the setting of aortic valve endocarditis and is therefore an attractive option in this situation.

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We report the case of a young female with PSC-associated cirrhosis and chronic renal failure who developed clinical and electrocardiographic signs consistent with acute myocardial infarction after a combined kidney and liver transplant. Cardiac investigations at that time were negative and she is currently asymptomatic one year post-transplant with resolution of most of her ECG abnormalities. Although the cause of her symptoms and ECG abnormalities is not immediately apparent, this case illustrates the difficulties in interpreting abnormal cardiac investigations in transplanted patients with liver cirrhosis who may have a background of subclinical cardiac disease.

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AIMS: To compare the effects on exercise capacity of the neutral endopeptidase inhibitor candoxatril, and the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor captopril, in patients with mild to moderate heart failure. METHODS: In this multi-centre double-blind placebo controlled study, 60 patients with NYHA Class I-III heart failure were randomised to candoxatril 200 mg b.d. (n = 22), captopril 25-50 mg b.d. (n = 23) or placebo (n = 15). Treadmill exercise tests were carried out weekly during a 5-week single-blind placebo run-in phase until a stable baseline was achieved, and repeated at 4 weekly intervals during the 12-week double-blind treatment phase. RESULTS: Nine patients withdrew from the study--four candoxatril and five captopril. The placebo-adjusted increase in exercise duration after 12 weeks was 56 s (95% CI, -26 to +137 s; P = 0.12) with candoxatril and 37 s (-43 to + 117 s; P = 0.29) with captopril. CONCLUSIONS: Both candoxatril and captopril were well tolerated and treadmill exercise duration appeared to increase during 12 weeks of therapy but this did not achieve statistical significance. This study tentatively suggests that in patients with heart failure, neutral endopeptidase inhibition may provide similar symptomatic benefits to angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition.

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OBJECTIVE: To assess the frequency of circulating cardiac specific autoantibodies in HIV positive patients with and without echocardiographic evidence of left ventricular dysfunction. SUBJECTS: 74 HIV positive patients including 28 with echocardiographic evidence of heart muscle disease, 52 HIV negative people at low risk of HIV infection, and 14 HIV negative drug users who had all undergone non-invasive cardiac assessment were studied along with a group of 200 healthy blood donors. RESULTS: Cardiac autoantibodies detected by indirect immunofluorescence (serum dilution 1/10) were more common in the HIV positive patients (15%), particularly the HIV heart muscle disease group (21%), than in HIV negative controls (3.5%) (both p < 0.001). By ELISA (dilution 1/320), abnormal anti-alpha myosin autoantibody concentrations were found more often in HIV patients with heart muscle disease (43%) than in HIV positive patients with normal hearts (19%) or in HIV negative controls (3%) (p < 0.05 and p < 0.001, respectively). Anti-alpha myosin autoantibody concentrations were greater in HIV positive patients than in HIV negative controls, regardless of cardiac status ((mean SD) 0.253 (0.155) v 0.170 (0.076); p = 0.003). In particular the mean antibody concentration was higher in the HIV heart muscle disease patients (0.291 (0.160) v 0.170 (0.076); p = 0.001) than in HIV negative controls. On follow up, six subjects with normal echocardiograms but raised autoantibody concentrations had died after a median of 298 days, three with left ventricular abnormalities at necropsy. This compared with a median survival of 536 days for 21 HIV positive patients with normal cardiological and immunological results. CONCLUSIONS: There is an increased frequency of circulating cardiac specific autoantibodies in HIV positive individuals, particularly those with heart muscle disease. The data support a role for cardiac autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of HIV related heart muscle disease, and suggest that cardiac autoantibodies may be markers of the development of left ventricular dysfunction in HIV positive patients with normal hearts.

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AIMS: To assess the effect of candoxatril, a novel neutral endopeptidase inhibitor, on exercise capacity, clinical status and quality of life in patients with mild to moderate chronic heart failure receiving angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients were recruited from 16 centres throughout the United Kingdom. Following a 4-week single-blind placebo 'run-in' phase of weekly exercise tests, patients underwent double-blind randomization to receive either candoxatril (100 mg twice daily) or placebo for the next 84 days. Patients were then reassessed every 28 days. Of 110 patients randomized, 56 received candoxatril and 54 placebo. Over the study period, the overall improvement in mean total exercise time in the candoxatril group in comparison to the placebo group was 34.1 s (P=0.02: 95% confidence interval: 5.1 to 63.0). There were no significant changes in functional class, clinical status or quality of life scores between the two groups. There was a trend for a small reduction in blood pressure in the candoxatril group. CONCLUSION: Candoxatril confers an improvement in exercise capacity in patients with chronic heart failure who are receiving maintenance angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor therapy.

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Non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis (NBTE) was frequently identified in early post-mortem studies of patients with HIV infection, but has not been reported since 1989. The reason for this apparent decline is not clear, but it is possible that the prevalence of the condition was overestimated in the past. We have found no evidence of NBTE in our series of 110 autopsies on subjects from all major risk groups and at various stages of immune deficiency [intravenous drug user (IVDU)-AIDS 35% (39/110), IVDU-pre AIDS 36% (40/110), homosexual-AIDS 25% (28/110), blood product recipients-AIDS 1.8% 2/110), African 0.9% (1/110)]. Infective endocarditis (IE) in HIV infection occurs almost exclusively in intravenous drug users and is rare in other HIV-positive patients. However, asymptomatic HIV infection appears to have little effect on the susceptibility to or the mortality from endocarditis and it is, therefore, appropriate to institute antimicrobial treatment in these cases. The majority (54.4%) of the 960 HIV-positive individuals in the Lothian region of Scotland are young adults who contracted the virus through IVDU around 1983. However, a prospective echocardiological study of 269 patients over four years (IVDU 69%, homosexual 18%, heterosexual 8%, bisexual 3%, multiple risk factors 1%) has demonstrated only four cases of infective endocarditis. We believe this reflects the prevalence of current parenteral drug use in our cohort which has fallen with the introduction of an oral drug replacement programme.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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OBJECTIVES: To determine the natural course of heart muscle disease in patients infected with HIV. DESIGN: Prospective echocardiographic survey and observational study over four years. SETTING: Edinburgh. SUBJECTS: 296 adults infected with HIV (mean age 32.7 years (range 21.5 to 67.6) drawn from all the major groups at risk of HIV infection in Britain. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Detection of myocardial dysfunction and time to death from index echocardiogram in serial echocardiography. RESULTS: Cardiac dysfunction was identified in 44 subjects (dilated cardiomyopathy, 13; isolated right ventricular dysfunction, 12; borderline left ventricular dysfunction, 19). Dilated cardiomyopathy was strongly associated with a CD4 cell count of < 100 x 10(6)/l, in contrast with the other forms of cardiac dysfunction. During the study 12/13 (92%) subjects with dilated cardiomyopathy, 5/12 (42%) with right ventricular dysfunction, and 8/19 (42%) with borderline left ventricular function died of conditions related to AIDS. Survival was significantly reduced in the subjects with dilated cardiomyopathy compared with those with normal hearts (P < 0.001). The median survival from the index echocardiogram was 101 days (95% confidence interval 42 to 146) for the subjects with cardiomyopathy compared with 472 days (383 to 560) for those with normal hearts and a CD4 cell count of < 20 x 10(6)/l. No significant difference existed in survival for subjects with borderline left or isolated right ventricular dysfunction. CONCLUSION: Even after adjustment for the significantly reduced CD4 cell count with which dilated cardiomyopathy is associated, the outlook for patients with HIV infection and dilated cardiomyopathy is poor. Isolated right and borderline left ventricular dysfunction are not associated with reduced CD4 cells counts and do not carry adverse prognostic implications.

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Toxocariasis, usually caused by Toxocara canis, is a zoonosis acquired by ingestion of worms which inhabit the gut of young canines. Domestic pets, such as dogs, become infected from soil in public parks and playgrounds which are often heavily contaminated. Although toxocariasis is often regarded as having two principal, though uncommon, manifestations--visceral larva migrans (VLM) and ocular toxocariasis (OT)--recent studies have suggested otherwise. A third, more common, condition, termed 'covert toxocariasis', describes patients in whom positive toxocara serology is associated with a number of systemic and localised symptoms and signs (notably abdominal pain) but not VLM or OT. A quarter of patients with covert toxocariasis have no eosinophilia and, although symptoms regress after treatment, they may persist for months or years. We report a 13-year-old girl with recurrent abdominal pain who, despite positive toxocara serology, was extensively investigated for other abdominal pathology.

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