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Systolic murmurs present in 129 geriatric patients followed to post-mortem were assessed as mitral or aortic in origin by simple clinical assessment alone. Post-mortem examination contradicted clinical findings in only 2% of cases. Mitral valve pathology, mostly post-inflammatory scarring or mucoid degeneration, was present in 50% of the cases with murmurs. There was a significant correlation between the presence of murmurs, particularly mitral murmurs, and congestive cardiac failure, and there was also a significant correlation with age. A tendency for aortic systolic murmurs to be associated with a higher mean systolic blood pressure was not significant and there was no significant association between systolic murmurs and ischaemic heart disease.

A case of vertebral osteomyelitis due to Pseudomonas aeruginosa is described and the problems of diagnosis and treatment discussed.