CARDIOVASCULAR INVOLVEMENT IN TROPICAL EOSINOPHILIA

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Abstract
One hundred cases of tropical eosinophilia, proven hematologically, were studied from the standpoint of cardiovascular involvement. While precordial pain occurred in 1/5 of all patients, in only three was the pain judged to be anginal. Systolic murmurs of varying intensity were heard in 7 patients, but always transiently. In 36 there was a loud pulmonary second sound, but indications of congestive heart failure were found in only 6 instances. Every patient except one, who died with transmural infarction, eventually recovered but in some dyspnea persisted for many weeks. Significant abnormalities in the ecg were recorded in 37 of the 100 patients studied. They were, with few exceptions, mild and transient. When cardiovascular disorders occurred they generally bore no relation to the degree or duration of fever or to the severity of respiratory involvement They were observed mainly in those patients in whom specific therapy was delayed or in whom there was pre-existing heart disease.