[Cor pulmonale in various collagen diseases].

The early manifestations of cor pulmonale and their dependence on the functional and morphologic changes in the lungs as well as on the collagen disease were studied on 186 patients with various collagenoses. Besides undergoing routine methods of examination all patients were tested for the function of external respiration and subjected to X-ray examination of the lungs and heart and electro-, phono-, vector- and kinetocardiography. There was no parallelism between the clinical manifestations of respiratory insufficiency and the functional and X-ray signs of affection of the lungs. Despite the chronic changes in the lungs, the configuration of the heart is altered only in singular cases. In the diagnosis of the involvement into the process of the right parts of the heart kinetocardiography and changes in the PV1 angle on the ECG proved to be most informative. Instrumental methods of examination revealed that the right parts of the heart were already involved in the stage of functional changes in the lungs.