Cardiovascular Diseases

THE TWO years of cardiovascular literature of which this review will make a necessarily sketchy survey have witnessed steady and sometimes momentous advances in knowledge. The following discussion of these developments, representative rather than inclusive, has been organized under ten of the natural subdivisions of cardiovascular disease. Because of their less general interest, the technical aspects of electrocardiography and the several roentgenologic technics of cardiac visualization have, with certain pertinent exceptions, been minimized. CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE The etiologic importance of rubella in the development of many cases of congenital heart disease appears to be thoroughly established. During the first trimester of pregnancy in particular, but to a less degree in the second and third trimesters as well, the virus of rubella may seriously affect several organ systems of the fetus, resulting in ocular defects, deafness and mental and dental defects, as well as congenital cardiac lesions. Wesselhoeft1has reviewed