The influence of intravenous injections of neo-salvarsan on the arterial blood pressure / by H.D. Rolleston.

  • Humphry Rolleston
Date:
[1915?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence of intravenous injections of neo-salvarsan on the arterial blood pressure / by H.D. Rolleston. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    With the Writer's Compliments. THE INFLUENCE OF INTRAVENOUS INJECTIONS OF NEO-SALVARSAN ON THE ARTERIAL BLOOD PRESSURE.* By H. D. ROLLESTON, M.l)., F.R.C.P., Surgeon-General (Temporary), R.N., CONSULTANT PHYSICIAN TO THE ROYAL NAVY, ROYAL NAVAL HOSPITAL, HASLAR; SENIOR PHYSICIAN, ST.'GEORGE’S HOSPITAL. The blood pressure was investigated in a hundred con¬ secutive cases in which neo-salvarsan was given intra¬ venously for syphilis, in almost all in the secondary stage. The patients were in the Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar, under the care of Staff Surgeon J. S. Dudding, R.N., who kindly gave me every facility for examining them. Their average age was 24 years, and except for twelve who were 30 years of age and over, and for six under 20, were all between 20 and 30 years of age. The amount of neo- salvarsan varied between 0.9 and 0.6 gram. The blood pressure (systolic and diastolic) was taken (i) on one or more days before the injection was given, (ii) about seven hours after the injection, and (iii) on three or sometimes four subsequent mornings. In 19 of these cases the blood pressure was also taken during the intravenous injection of neo-sal varsan. Included in the 100 cases were 12 cases in which the blood pressure was investigated in connexion with both first and second injections of neo-sal varsan—• usually at a month’s interval. Mercer’s sphygmomano¬ meter, with an arm-cuff of 14 cm., was used. The auscul¬ tatory method was employed, the maximum systolic pres¬ sure being estimated as the mean between the points where the auscultatory sound disappeared and reappeared, and the diastolic pressure at the time of the so-called fourth phase, where the intensity of the auscultatory sound suddenly diminishes. I took all the blood pressure estima¬ tions myself, so that errors from more than one personal equation were avoided. * Reprinted from British Medical Journal, 1915, vol. ii, pp. 281-3. [279/15]