Publications

The effects of oral propranolol and digoxin and digoxin alone and in combination on angina frequency, heart size, systolic time intervals and treadmill exercise tolerance, were assessed in 20 patients with coronary heart disease. Oral propranolol alone reduced the average frequency of angina pectoris from 16 to 7 attacks per week (P less than 0.02). However, the mean duration of exercise was not significantly improved because 8 patients with abnormal left ventricular function exhibited a decrease in exercise tolerance. Combined propranolol and digoxin improved exercise tolerance in these patients, and, consequently, mean exercise duration in all patients increased significantly from the control value of 390 +/- 42 to 458 +/- 46 s (P less than 0.01). Propranolol alone also resulted in a significant increase in left heart size from 46.5 +/- 1.3 to 47.7 +/- 1.5 mm/m2 (P less than 0.001), which was reversed by the addition of digoxin. Therefore, oral propranolol combined with digoxin is advantageous in patients with angina pectoris who have abnormal ventricular function or large hearts.

Peptic and chymotryptic peptides were isolated form the NADP-specific glutamate dehydrogenase of Neurospora crassa and substantially sequenced. Out of 452 residues in the polypeptide chain, 265 were recovered in the peptic and 427 in the chymotryptic peptides. Together with the tryptic peptides [Wootton, J. C., Taylor, J. G., Jackson, A. A., Chambers, G. K. & Fincham, J. R. S. (1975) Biochem. J. 149, 749-755], these establish the complete sequence of the chain, including the acid and amide assignments, except for seven places where overlaps are inadequate. These remaining alignments are deduced from information on the CNBr fragments obtained in another laboratory [Blumenthal, K. M., Moon, K. & Smith, E. L. (1975), J. Biol. Chem. 250, 3644-3654]. Further information has been deposited as Supplementary Publication SUP 50054 (17 pages) with the British Library (Lending Division), Boston Spa, Wetherby, W. Yorkshire LS23 7BQ, U.K., from whom copies may be obtained under the terms given in Biochem. J. (1975) 145, 5.