The Lettsomian Lectures on Diseases and Disorders of the Heart and Arteries in Middle and Advanced Life [1900-1901]

Obesity and Glycosuria

Closely related to goutiness is a clinical type of disturbed metabolism, mainly characterised by corpulence, a bulky, flabby build, and glycosuria. Of this type, represented by 12 cases in my series, nine had glycosuria and two albuminuria; eight were men; the average age was 58. Only one had suffered from true articular gout. Here, again, the interesting observation was made that no less than three-fourths of the number had a systolic aortic murmur, none of them a regurgitant aortic murmur, and nearly one-half of them an ill-developed mitral systolic murmur. Thus there appears to be more liability to atheroma in the gross corpulent diabetic even than in the gouty man. In all the cases the heart appeared to be enlarged, but accurate physical examination is difficult or impossible in many of these subjects. The impulse was more often feeble than in the gouty; the cardiac sounds were equally weak, and the second aortic sound was occasionally accentuated. The pulse corresponded with the gouty pulse in thickness and tension, but it was more often found irregular and hurried. As for the complaints of corpulent and diabetic patients, they prove to be very similar to those of gouty individuals in respect of pain, but neither palpitation, faintness nor irregularity was so often mentioned.

It must not be understood from what I have just said in my account of these cases that all disturbances of the heart in gouty subjects progress to valvular or vascular degeneration, with associated cardiac enlargement and degeneration. The friend whose case I have just described at some length had led an active life, as I said, for 40 years; and, as I hope to show in my next lecture, the condition is amenable to treatment if this is based on a correct appreciation of the cause that is at work. But it is equally true that if correct advice be not given, or if it be given but be neglected, as happens so frequently, the endocardium and the aorta and other arteries steadily degenerate, chronic interstitial nephritis makes its appearance, and the patient dies either slowly from cardiac failure or suddenly from cerebral hæmorrhage.

Cardiac Strain

I will now proceed to consider the clinical characters of a class of cases in which you, Sir, are particularly interested – strain of the heart in middle and advanced life. To make this part of my subject more plain, I will discuss in the first place acute strain of the heart as it occurs after the fortieth year; afterwards I will consider the condition of the heart and arteries at this age in persons who have strained them in youth or early manhood.

A man of 65, who came to me complaining of his heart, gave the following account of the commencement of his trouble: – Four years previously, on making a very hard stroke at golf (the ball was bunkered), he was suddenly seized with a sensation of something having happened in his heart. He played up to the next hole, but now felt the chest oppressed; he sat down and got relief. This experience was repeated, and he gave up the round. Walking home two miles, he had to sit down occasionally with the same feeling. Ever since that occurrence exertion had produced the same effect. I found the ordinary physical signs of enlargement of both sides of the heart; a scarcely perceptible impulse; the cardiac sounds extremely feeble, the second being of a finely ringing quality; the pulse tense, quiet and regular, but the radial artery by no means sclerosed. The patient's principal complaints were of irregular action of the heart, which troubled him on lying down or when he was dyspeptic; and, as I have said, of post-sternal oppression on exertion. This man had neither albuminuria nor emphysema, but he had frequently suffered from ordinary articular gout. Belonging to this type of cardiac strain I have notes in all of 11 cases, which I will briefly summarise. Eight were men, three women; and their average age was 56. In all but one of them the heart was large, with feeble præcordial impulse; the sounds were small and feeble; the aortic diastolic sound was often ringing; in but one case was there a murmur – aortic systolic; with few exceptions the rhythm and the rate of the heart were ordinary. In half the cases the radial artery was sclerosed; in the majority the tension was not increased. Persons who strain their heart after middle life chiefly complain of præcordial oppression, dyspnœa on exertion, a sense of palpitation and irregular action of the heart, and pain, which may amount to angina; and they may tell us that distress and disability in these different forms have troubled them for years. You will have observed that the man whose case I have read in particular was the subject of gout; and this brings me to the interesting fact that of these 11 individuals seven were gouty. We have already seen how greatly reduced is the resistance of the cardio-vascular system in gouty subjects; and we are prepared for the readiness with which their heart may be strained by exertion – a matter of obvious importance prophylactically. In other cases not included in this group the strain took the form of valvular injury, or it affected hearts already the seats of old-standing valvular lesions of rheumatic origin; but the present is not the occasion to discuss these. Nor need I add that a not infrequent result of acute strain of the aged heart, whether its valves have been already damaged or its myocardium badly nourished, is sudden death. Now, I can understand that some of my audience might object to the application of the term "strain" to the effect of exertion in gouty and senile hearts, just as Professor Clifford Allbutt, who is universally recognised as the earliest and highest authority on this subject, suggests that the clinical expression "strain of the heart" relates only to comparatively young subjects free or nearly free from degeneration.14 It might be contended with great reason that exertion in these subjects is not a cause of strain or dilatation of the heart, but simply a test, as it were, or the proof, of cardiac debility and disability. But when we come to consider cardiac strain a little more closely, it may be just as easily maintained that every dilated heart, every dilated cardiac chamber, every dilated blood-vessel has been strained. Whether, on the one hand, valvular disease, Bright's disease or emphysema, or, on the other hand, myocardial degeneration, has disturbed that cardinal condition of a normal circulation that the driving power must always exceed the resistance ahead, over-distension and dilatation of the cavities, with excessive stretching of their walls, constitute or consist in mechanical strain. However, laying aside theoretical discussions of this character, the great practical fact remains, that when the aged and ill-nourished heart is over-distended from sudden and severe exertion, neither the elastic nor the muscular tissues of its walls can bear the strain; it becomes dilated; for the future it acts at a mechanical disadvantage; and as often as this may occur it suffers still more in its efficiency. On the other hand, it is really in confirmation of this consideration, though apparently in opposition to it, that the heart may diminish somewhat in size, and præcordial distress disappear, under strict treatment continued for a sufficient length of time.

Strain Before Forty

A more interesting group of cases than those which I have just discussed is composed of persons who have strained their hearts in youth or early manhood, have never been quite well since, and in middle or advanced life are at last driven to us for help. Cases of this character would furnish excellent material from which we might attempt to judge of the after-effects of excess or abuse of muscular exercise in the young. This is a tempting subject of discussion, but one far too long and much too important to be taken up casually at this time. Therefore, I will content myself with submitting to you as plainly as I can certain facts bearing on it that have come before me in my present inquiry, along with a few simple observations of a practical bearing. First, then, let me read to you the history of what I should call a typical case of the kind. A man of 69 complains that as often as he walks any distance or climbs a stair he is arrested by a distressing sense of having a bar across the lower end of the sternum, breathlessness, irregular palpitation of the heart, and a very little choking in the throat; the discomfort has lately deserved the name of pain. His heart is very large, the area of præcordial dulness being increased in all directions and measuring transversely 7 inches. The impulse is weak over the left ventricle, but definite in the epigastrium; the sounds come in couples – moderately good and very weak respectively, without murmur; and the radial artery is large and thick, with rather low pressure and irregular rhythm. It turns out that for the last 40 years these uncomfortable feelings have troubled the man more or less, and that at three different periods of his life – at 31, at 42 and at 67 – they increased so much as to incapacitate him for many months, the first time with a sudden sense of something snapping in the heart, the second time with a faint, and always, as he believes, consequent on overwork. Now this man never had rheumatism, nor gout, nor syphilis, and was always a temperate, careful liver; and he volunteers the statement that he first felt his heart at Cambridge, where he was captain of his College boat, and was tried for the University boat but felt that he was not fit for it. Belonging to this type of cardiac strain I have selected 11 cases. The heart is always found to be enlarged, and in about one-half of the cases it is irregular. It may be weak and beating at the ordinary rate, but in other instances it is increased both in force and frequency. Only in quite exceptional cases did I meet with endocardial murmurs in this group of old strained hearts; as a rule the sounds were ordinary, with a disposition to accentuation of the aortic second sound. High tension and sclerosis of the radial artery were respectively found in about one-half of the cases. The patients complain most commonly of a distressing sense of irregular palpitation of the heart, and very commonly of præcordial pain, but rarely of angina. Faintness also is sometimes mentioned. Let me hasten to add, with respect to these cases, that they do not include any instances of direct injury of the valves mechanically. Rupture or stretching of the aortic and mitral valves during exertion furnishes us with some very remarkable clinical cases; but it is with parietal strain that we are concerned now – mechanical over-stretching of the cardiac walls, which are thereafter left with but a narrow margin of the elastic and muscular reserve required by them to meet trying circumstances of any kind, particularly exertion. The subjects of dilatation of the heart from mechanical stress suffer by no means from what is commonly called "heart disease," excepting in the worst cases, but yet they feel their hearts comparatively, and it may be seriously, disabled. Naturally they associate these feelings of disability with fresh attempts at exercise or exertion, as in the case which I have just read. I pointed out in my first lecture that such exertion is not by any means connected with the patient's occupation or daily duties, but quite often occurs during unwise attempts on his part to resume at 50 the athletic exercises of his youth in order to reduce his weight, relieve his liver, or dispel gout. It is not wonderful that under such circumstances a permanently enlarged and badly-nourished heart should become embarrassed, or even seriously deranged or still further strained. I have known a man of 43, going straight from London to the Alps, have not only præcordial distress but dropsy of his legs after his first ascent in his regular holiday. Indeed, the man who has reached later middle-life with his heart enlarged by years of great bodily activity in youth, and settles down quietly on retirement, let us say from the navy, sometimes finds that ordinary exercise is sufficient to produce alarming cardiac distress and curious loss of courage, obviously due to the muscular tissue of the thickened cardiac walls having fallen quite out of condition. How instructive, for instance, is the following case: – A gentleman of 60, who has led from his boyhood upwards a life of physical activity and at the same time of temperance, and has suffered from neither syphilis nor rheumatism, but possibly from a very mild attack of gout, settles in a relaxing provincial town, continues to eat heartily, and considers that a little work in the garden is sufficient exercise for him. He increases in weight, his breath gets short, his heart flutters, and now he begins to get anxious about his health, fancying, as he says, that he has all sorts of diseases – a disposition to worry about himself which is entirely new and provoking to him. I find his heart very large and feeble, the cardiac sounds scarcely audible, and in the mitral area a well-developed systolic murmur. The patient is ordered to reduce his diet as a whole and in respect of carbo-hydrates, to return carefully to walking exercise on the level, and to take a calomel purge followed by a saline twice a week, and a mild strychnine mixture. He improves, and continues to do so; is able to walk miles without discomfort; and in the course of two months not only do I find his heart reduced in size on physical examination, but I fail to hear the apical murmur, which must have been produced by dilatation of the left ventricle. The bearing of such a case as this on the pathology, prevention and treatment of certain cases of heart disease in old subjects will be obvious to all.

We must be careful, however, to observe that neither unwise abandonment of wholesome exercise, nor ill-advised return to physical exertion, separately or in succession, can be regarded as the only cause of the recrudescence of cardiac distress after 40 in those who have strained their circulation in youth. Any one of the many circumstances that produce cardiac failure and dropsy in chronic valvular disease may lead to embarrassment and fresh dilatation of the simply enlarged heart: anæmia and chronic disease, the acute specific fevers including pneumonia, emphysema, granular kidney, gout, syphilis, tobacco and alcohol poisoning, as well as anxiety and worry, and in women the advent of the menopause; and I may say here parenthetically that pains at the heart in athletic youths are sometimes due to the tobacco smoking in which they often indulge socially when the exercise is finished – not to strain at all. In these cases of old cardiac strain, as in every form of chronic valvular disease and of chronic heart disease of all kinds, not only the original and permanent lesion, but the recent and probably temporary circumstance that caused the failure has to be ascertained and fully respected in connection with prognosis and treatment.

Syphilis

Syphilis appears to account for a very considerable proportion of the more serious cases of heart disease which we meet with in older subjects – excluding of course chronic valvular disease originating remotely in endocarditis. But I ought to repeat here what I have already mentioned, that syphilis as a cause of cardio-vascular lesions is very often associated with other morbific influences, particularly strain and alcohol. Of its position as the principal cause of grave disease of the valves as distinguished from the walls of the heart, originating in middle life, there can be no question. No fewer than nine out of 28 cases, of which I have private notes, were the subjects of double aortic disease; practically all the others had a loud ringing second sound over the aorta, significant of degeneration; pain of anginal type in half the cases was the prominent complaint; and two-thirds of the subjects had sclerosis of the radial artery. When we consider that syphilis does also affect the myocardium primarily; that fibroid disease, chronic aneurysm and fatty degeneration of the heart are all traceable to specific disease of the coronaries in many instances; and, finally, that many of the subjects of syphilitic cardio-vascular disease have perished before 40, the magnitude of this cause can be fully realised. I believe that the profession in general have not yet woke up, if I may say so, to the gravity of this subject. How seldom we inquire for a history of specific disease in patients coming to us with cardiac disease in middle life! To no one, as far as my reading goes, are we so much indebted for the truth on this subject as to my friend and colleague Dr. Mott. Thirteen years ago he published a paper on 21 cases of sudden death from cardio-vascular disease, and in nine of these there was a history of either actual or probable syphilis. What was of greater interest, however, at that early date, he drew attention to the association of syphilitic cardio-vascular lesions with Bright's disease in the broad acceptation of the term. Dr. Mott's work in the interval on syphilitic lesions of the arterial system of the brain has been so brilliant, and is so generally known, that it requires nothing more than this appreciative mention by me, and it saves me the trouble of an excursion into the subjects of cerebral hæmorrhage and thrombosis in connection with these lectures.

Nervous Strain

I confess that it is difficult to say much that is of real diagnostic value on the clinical aspect of cardio-vascular disorders and disease from nervous strain. As I remarked in discussing this subject from the etiological point of view, several factors come into play besides nervous excitement followed by exhaustion and their effects on the heart, great vessels and cerebral arteries; and the cases, therefore, are found to present a puzzling variety of features. Certain clinical characters are, however, common to the majority. Arterial tension is high; the radial artery is thick, sometimes markedly so; the heart enlarges; and in about one-half of the cases a systolic murmur is to be heard either in the aortic or in the mitral area, significant of chronic endocardial lesions – all readily intelligible results of cerebral strain in the light of our knowledge of the innervation of the cardio-vascular system. I have already pointed out that in some of these patients polyuria and temporary albuminuria occur along with the high tension and the increased action of the heart; but the heart may fail later on. The direct cardiac symptoms of which they complain are of the ordinary character, palpitation with accelerated cardiac frequency and pain (not angina) being the most common at first, feelings of indescribable discomfort and suffocation in the more advanced stage. A great deal that I might have had to say on the very interesting subjects of pseudo-angina, and the climacteric and pre-climacteric disturbances of the circulation in women, I am reluctantly compelled to omit from want of time.

After having reviewed, as I have attempted to do, the principal clinical characters of the disorders and diseases of middle and advanced life under their several causes, it may appear for a moment strange that the most important of all the clinical types of cardio-vascular degeneration has been mentioned only incidentally. This is chronic Bright's disease, which, from its complex pathological relations, its widespread effects on the heart and circulation and the organs that they supply, and the far greater gravity of these than those of any of the other causes which we have studied (unless it be syphilis), is a subject of endless interest to us all. Fortunately for me my immediate predecessor in this chair on the medical side, our distinguished Fellow, Dr. Samuel West, took for his subject the "Clinical Aspects of Granular Kidney," and thus relieved me of a task which he was so much better able to discharge than I. Emphysema must also be passed over with the single remark that it is a very common accompaniment both of vascular and cardiac degenerations.

I trust you do not conclude that the description which I have just given you of the clinical characters of these various disorders and diseases of the heart is in any sense complete. It only relates to the most prominent symptoms and signs as they present themselves to us in what might be called the every-day life of the patient, at a period in the history of his case precedent to failure. In all of them there may occur occasional attacks of acute embarrassment of the heart and lungs from one or more of a variety of causes, such as indigestion, excitement or over-exertion. Sooner or later, also, there occurs either cardiac dropsy – insidiously developed after increasing local distress, growing dyspnœa and "bad nights"; or Bright's disease; or cerebral thrombosis or hæmorrhage, or acute myocardial failure with angina: or the patient dies from failure of the heart in the course of some acute disease such as bronchitis or pneumonia. Neither have I considered it necessary in this lecture to dwell on some of the rarer phenomena occasionally met with, such as tachycardia and bradycardia. I may have occasion to refer to them next time in connection with prognosis.

LECTURE III