glycogen and Dyspnea

Geriatric cardiology requires special knowledge and experience. It is not possible to extrapolate directly experience obtained with young patients to old people. Because of the multiple illnesses, many serious, in the elderly cardiac patients, it is imperative for the cardiologist to be, first of all, a master internist at all times. Old patients with their multiple illnesses are also sensitive to drugs, including digitalis and diuretics. There is a need to train more physicians in geriatric cardiology in order to offer the old patient the best of care since so many old people are living today. There is also a need to learn the effects of the aging process itself on the human heart. Such studies should command priorities in financial and other forms of support.

Topics: Age Factors; Aging; Aortic Valve Insufficiency; Aortic Valve Stenosis; Cardiac Output; Dyspnea; Edema; Electrocardiography; Female; Glycogen; Heart; Heart Diseases; Heart Function Tests; Histocytochemistry; Humans; Hypertension; Hypotension, Orthostatic; Male; Microscopy, Electron; Myocardium; Radiography; Rheumatic Heart Disease; Thyroid Diseases; Vectorcardiography

Pulmonary interstitial glycogenosis (PIG) is a rare infant interstitial lung disease characterized by an increase in the number of interstitial mesenchymal cells, presenting as enhanced cytoplasmic glycogen, and is considered to represent the expression of an underlying lung development disorder.. This study describes the clinical, radiological, and functional characteristics and long-term outcomes (median 12 years) of nine infants diagnosed with isolated PIG associated with alveolar simplification in the absence of other diseases.. All patients presented with tachypnea. Additionally, seven patients had breathing difficulties and hypoxemia. Abnormalities in chest-computerized tomography (CT) with a pattern of ground-glass opacity, septal thickening, and air trapping were observed in all individuals, with images suggesting abnormal alveolar growth (parenchymal bands and architectural distortion). All lung biopsies showed alveolar simplification associated with an increased number of interstitial cells, which appeared as accumulated cytoplasmic glycogen. In the follow-up, all patients were asymptomatic. The respiratory function test was normal in only two patients. Five children showed an obstructive pattern, and two children showed a restrictive pattern. Chest-CT, performed after an average of 6.5 years since the initial investigation, revealed a partial improvement of the ground-glass opacity pattern; however, relevant alterations persisted.. Although the patients with PIG in the absence of other associated pathologies had a good clinical outcome, significant radiographic alterations and sequelae in lung function were still observed after a median follow-up of 12 years, suggesting that PIG is a marker of some other persistent abnormalities in lung growth, which have effects beyond the symptomatic period.

Topics: Biopsy; Child; Child, Preschool; Cytoplasm; Disease Progression; Dyspnea; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Glycogen; Glycogen Storage Disease; Humans; Hypoxia; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Lung; Lung Diseases, Interstitial; Male; Pulmonary Alveoli; Tachypnea; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Treatment Outcome

Topics: Animals; Animals, Newborn; Bradycardia; Carbohydrate Metabolism; Dyspnea; Female; Glucose; Glycogen; Growth; Hypoxia; Liver; Liver Glycogen; Milk; Myocardium; Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; Rats