TASK DEFINITION: Given an abstract of a paper, generate a title for this paper such that conveys the key focus of the paper.
PROBLEM: Abstract: In an earlier report, the authors demonstrated a trend toward progressive hyperopia in radial keratotomy (RK) patients examined between one and three to four years postoperatively. In those 109 cases, the surgeries were performed using a metal-blade instrument. In the following study, the metal-blade series was updated to a total of 225 procedures, and a more recent series of 300 procedures performed on 228 patients was examined in which a diamond-knife cutting instrument was used. Patients had uncorrected visual acuity determination, cycloplegic refractions with best corrected visual acuity measurements and keratometry measurements. The authors demonstrated a hyperopic shift in the distribution of postoperative spherical equivalent (SE) values across time such that higher proportions of cases in both metal-blade and diamond-knife series were at least 1.0 diopter (D) away from emmetropia at 24 and 48 months than was the case at 12 months after surgery. Regression analysis determined that none of the preoperative or surgical variables known to affect refractive outcome of RK (alone or in combination) could account for the changes in refraction seen during the course of postoperative time. In general, changes in keratometry paralleled refractive changes, but were somewhat smaller in magnitude.

SOLUTION: Progressive hyperopia in radial keratotomy. Long-term follow-up of diamond-knife and metal-blade series.

PROBLEM: Abstract: Abnormal left ventricular diastolic performance, an early manifestation of hypertension in the heart, may precede the development of left ventricular hypertrophy. To assess effects of antihypertensive therapy on the heart, left ventricular mass (determined by echocardiography) and rapid left ventricular filling rate (determined by radionuclide ventriculography) were compared before and after 6 months of treatment of 16 patients. Nitrendipine (a dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker) was given alone or in combination with either propranolol or hydrochlorothiazide, or both, and significantly reduced blood pressure (156/103 +/- 12/7 to 137/89 +/- 10/6 mm Hg). In 6 of the 16 patients, left ventricular mass decreased by more than 10% (270 +/- 95 to 193 +/- 47 g, p less than 0.01); in the same patients, left ventricular filling rate increased (2.03 +/- 0.35 to 2.30 +/- 0.45 end-diastolic counts/s [EDC/s], p less than 0.01). In the one patient whose left ventricular mass increased (137 to 195 g), left ventricular filling rate decreased from 2.01 to 1.78 EDC/s. In the remaining nine patients who had no change in left ventricular mass, there was no significant changes in left ventricular filling. The changes in ventricular mass and filling could not be related to the extent of change in blood pressure or heart rate. These data suggest that regression of left ventricular mass during antihypertensive therapy with nitrendipine is accompanied by improved diastolic function.

SOLUTION: Improved left ventricular filling accompanies reduced left ventricular mass during therapy of essential hypertension.

PROBLEM: Abstract: In patients with primary pulmonary hypertension, competition between the right and left ventricles for the limited pericardial space results in distortion of left ventricular geometry reflected in displacement of the ventricular septum toward the left ventricular cavity. Left ventricular shape is most dramatically deranged at end-systole and early diastole, suggesting the possibility that the distribution of left ventricular diastolic filling might be altered. To investigate this hypothesis, nine patients with primary pulmonary hypertension and nine normal individuals were studied with echocardiographic techniques. Left ventricular isovolumic relaxation time was significantly prolonged in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension by comparison with normal individuals (129 +/- 36 versus 53 +/- 9 ms, p less than 0.005) and the fraction of the transmitral flow velocity integral occurring in the first half of diastole was significantly less than in normal individuals (38 +/- 14% versus 70 +/- 9%, p less than 0.005). Measurement of fractional changes in short-axis left ventricular cavity area similarly demonstrated that in patients with primary pulmonary hypertension fractional early diastolic cavity expansion (32 +/- 11%) was significantly less than in normal individuals (78 +/- 9%, p less than 0.005). In patients with primary pulmonary hypertension, the ventricular septum was abnormally flattened toward the left ventricular cavity at end-systole (normalized septal curvature 0.04 +/- 0.19) and remained that way throughout early diastolic filling but returned toward normal at end-diastole (normalized septal curvature 0.68 +/- 0.19, p less than 0.005).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

SOLUTION:
Doppler echocardiographic assessment of impaired left ventricular filling in patients with right ventricular pressure overload due to primary pulmonary hypertension.