Word: amylives
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People who suffer from the sudden, sharp chest pains called angina pectoris usually carry nitroglycerin pills or amyl nitrite for quick, dramatic relief. The frightening spasms commonly occur in long-standing heart disease patients when they exercise or are exposed to cold weather. But what is the victim to do if the pain strikes and he has forgotten his pill? A report in last week's New England Journal of Medicine suggests an effective emergency treatment: when an attack takes place, hold the nose, close the mouth and blow...
Named the Valsalva maneuver, after the 17th century Italian anatomist who described it, the trick is the same used by air travelers and skin divers to clear their ears on descent. It also has much the same result as a dose of nitroglycerin or amyl nitrite. Both drugs are rapid dilators of the coronary arteries, and thus quickly increase blood flow within the oxygen-deprived heart muscle; the technique of blowing hard against resistance may work similarly, but, according to the Journal authors, the mechanism is not clear. The Valsalva maneuver should only be used in emergencies...
Cocktails for Surgery. Improvements in treatment have kept pace. Amyl nitrite was formerly used liberally, and nitroglycerin only sparingly, as a last resort. Whisky was freely prescribed, and tobacco rigidly banned. Nowadays, Dr. Master notes, amyl nitrite is seldom given because it causes too general a dilation of the arteries. Nitroglycerin, on the other hand, is freely prescribed, not only after the onset of an attack but to head one off: "When activities known to precipitate an anginal attack are undertaken-coitus, walking uphill, walking after a meal, walking early in the morning, stepping out into the cold, or walking...
...woman who went to Boston's Peter Bent Brigham Hospital complaining of palpitations and a "smothering sensation" had nothing wrong with her heart. Drs. W. Proctor Harvey and Samuel A. Levine ordered psychiatric treatment for her. Then the patient volunteered to test the effect of a drug (amyl nitrite) on heart sounds. At first the electrocardiograph gave normal readings; so did the phonocardiograph. But as soon as the patient saw the drug, her heart began a machine-gun beat. Scared nearly to death themselves, the doctors put the drug away and her heart went back to normal...
...received in 8,000 letters have included such standard remedies as breathing in & out of a paper bag and eating ice cream. Doctors at Greene County Memorial Hospital have tried sedatives, anesthesia, benzyl benzoate (a relaxing drug), quinidine sulfate (a quinine-like drug used to regulate abnormal heart rhythms), amyl nitrite (a drug used to treat angina pectoris...