title: Symptoms and signs of heart failure in patients with myocardial infarction: reproducibility and relationship to chest X-ray, radionuclide ventriculography and right heart catheterization.
abstract: 102 patients with myocardial infarction (MI) were examined by three clinicians, who independently recorded the following symptoms and signs: dyspnoea, a displaced apex beat, S3-gallop, rales, neck vein distension, hepatomegaly, and dependent oedema. Chest X-ray, radionuclide ventriculography, and (in 40 patients) right heart catheterization were carried out immediately after the physical examination. The clinicians frequently disagreed as to the presence of physical signs of heart failure in individuals. Moreover, these signs were of limited value in identifying patients with pulmonary vascular congestion on chest X-ray, reduced left or right radionuclide ventricular ejection fractions, enlarged ventricular volumes or haemodynamic evidence of ventricular dysfunction. We conclude that clinicians frequently disagree in the recognition of physical signs of heart failure, and that these signs have an unpredictable relationship to radiographic, radionuclide and haemodynamic measures of ventricular performance in patients with MI. Nevertheless, physical signs are useful in identifying patients with high risk of cardiac death.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gadsbøll
authors.forename: P F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Høilund-Carlsen
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Berning
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Brunn
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stage
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hein
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Marving
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Løngborg-Jensen
authors.forename: B H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Jensen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D006328:Cardiac Catheterization; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D015588:Observer Variation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000175:diagnosis; D011669:Pulmonary Wedge Pressure; D011859:Radiography; D015635:Radionuclide Ventriculography